In distinct decision environments,consumers often fail to financially optimize their decisions. In liberalized electricity markets, consumers frequently do not optimize their electricity choices and stick with the default providers instead, despite the ability to choose among an increasingly...

An insurance contract may be nonperforming—resulting in a situation in which the insured might be worse off than without insurance since also losing the premium. This study revisits how contract nonperformance risk influences individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for insurance contracts. In...

A number of self-beneficial motives can trigger pro-environmental and prosocial behavior of individuals. We focus on the role of the warm glow of giving-the personal benefit people experience when doing good irrespective of the consequences-in the valuation of ethically certified food products....

Is it possible to exploit cognitive biases so that a non-professional taster prefers one wine to several other absolutely identical wines? To address this question, three complementary experiments were carried out. Each time, five wines were tasted blind in a tasting laboratory by 24 to 34...

We review the emerging literature on information acquisition in field settings. We first document an increase in studies on information acquisition and review relevant studies in different subfields of economics, including macroeconomics, political economy, labor economics, health economics, and...

We analyze lifecycle saving strategies using a recursive utility model calibrated to match empirical estimates for the value of a statistical life. We show that, with a positive value of life, risk aversion reduces savings and annuity purchase. Risk averse agents are willing to make an early...

A recent literature points to individuals having preferences for autonomy. Autonomy includes an individual's ability to choose a course of actions that meaning-fully affects his or her outcomes as well as an individual enjoying a certain degree of non-interference from others. In this paper we...

There are many possible connections between VSL and behavioral economics. A list of topics includes endowment effects, risk salience, ambiguity aversion, present bias, reference groups, reference points, and experienced versus decision utilities. There are also nudges that connect to estimating...