We develop a theoretical model to study the welfare effects of libertarian paternalism on information acquisition, social learning, and financial decision-making. Individuals in our model are permitted to appreciate and use the information content in the default options set by a social planner....

This paper provides a theoretical analysis regarding the rationality of suicide attacks from an economist's point of view. It is argued that although a terrorist gives up future utility from consumption by committing a suicide attack, this loss can be overcompensated by the utility he derives...

Most important economic decision problems are sequential, and thus naturally represented as Markov Decision Problems (MDP). After reviewing the theory of MDPs, the applicability of MDPs to real-life sequential decisions appears impractical. The central question addressed in this essay is how...

Current time allocation and household production models face three major weaknesses: First, they only describe the average time allocation. Thus, information about the order of activities is lost. Therefore, it is impossible to describe the influence of activities on later ones. Such...

Proximate stressors such as destructive fishing are key drivers of coral reef degradation. Conservation strategies that marshal local action and are tailored to the preferences of the target group are thus needed to sustain coral resources. We experimentally analyze the behavior of marine...

Forest policy in Ireland has focused on the expansion of forest cover in recent years to increase ecosystem services, but in spite of financial support to incentivize farmers to afforest previously agricultural land and the high returns of farm forestry relative to the agricultural alternatives,...