There is a broad range of phenomena that are categorized as "mental accounting". Some of these phenomena may be viewed as situations in which a person evaluates decisions based on the implicit assumption that the decision she makes at a given moment will be repeated many times in the future. For...

In most democracies, at least two out of any three individuals vote for the same party in sequential elections. Here I show that stands on the issues, candidates' attributes and individuals' demographics do not account for all of the persistence over time in voting decisions. I present a new...

Several recent studies found that the behavior of economists was less cooperative than the behavior of non-economists. However, other studies found that economists behaved no differently than other individuals. In this paper, we study this issue by examining personal value priorities of...

During contarctual negotiations, but before entering a contarct, parties might make reliance expenditures. Such expenditures would increase the surplus should a contarct be made, but would wasted if not. This paper analyses parties' decisions to invest in pre-contractual reliance under...

The new decade has been called "the age of information." We show that, although information has become more accessible, the increase in the variety of products has made consumers' choices complex and uncertain. Faced with uncertainty about products' attributes offered by "umbrella brands,"...

n this paper we investigate the implementation problem arising when some of the players are ``faulty" in the sense that they fail to act optimally. The exact number and identity of the faulty players is unknown to the planner and to the nonfaulty players, but it is common knowledge that there...

This paper is the Schwartz Memorial Lecture, delivered at Kellogg, Northwestern University in May 1998. The lecture introduces some ideas about the possible use of tools taken from the economics literature to explain language phenomena. Two specific issues are discussed: From the domain of...

This paper presents an empirical study of spatial competition and a methodological approach to estimating product characteristics and consumer preferences in industries with products whose characteristics are unobservable or difficult to measure.We demonstrate the effective use of panel data on...