Obesity has become a major health issue. Research in economics has provided important insights as to how technological progress reduced the relative price of food and contributed to the increase in obesity. However, the increased availability of food might well have overstrained will power and...

Neoclassical economic theory rules out systematic errors in consumption choice. According to the basic view, individuals know what they choose. They are able to predict how much utility an activity or a good produces for them now and in the future and they can maximize their utility. This...

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a mandate requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. This paper investigates whether and why calorie posting laws work. To do so, we develop a model of calories consumed that highlights two...

We provide the first empirical evidence on the direct link between locus of control and self-control, and how they interact in explaining a range of health outcomes. Using rich Australian survey data, we find that, while the two traits are distinct constructs, a greater internal locus of control...

We exploit a large exogenous shock to study socioemotional development (SED) during adolescence and the consequences on relevant economic outcomes, focusing on gender differences. Using novel, longitudinal, microdata on cohorts of East German adolescents before and after a large macro shock (the...

This paper assesses the impact of a mental health literacy intervention on the demand for mental health support among university students. We run a field experiment with 2,978 university students from one of the largest Dutch universities. The literacy intervention provides information on the...

We exploit a large quasi-exogenous shock to study the development of socioemotional skills during adolescence and the consequences for long-term behavior and labor market outlook. Using novel, longitudinal, microdata on cohorts of East German adolescents before and after a large macro shock (the...