Some food items that are commonly considered unhealthy also tend to elicit impulsive responses. The pain of paying in cash can curb impulsive urges to purchase such unhealthy food products. Credit card payments, in contrast, are relatively painless and weaken impulse control. Consequently,...

Much analysis in macroeconomics empirically addresses economy-wide incentives behind consumer/investment choices by using insights from the way a single representative household would behave. Heterogeneity at the micro level can jeopardize attempts to back up the representative consumer...

To maximize happiness, one could either improve desired external outcomes (e.g., wealth) or optimize the relationship between desired external outcome and happiness without improving the outcome per se. Economics focuses on the first method. The present chapter advocates a science about the...

• After four decades, the financial planning profession still lacks an overarching framework for organizing and testing the strategy-making (i.e. "planning") activities of its practitioners.• An integrating framework is proposed that consists of five modes of strategy-making: planner-driven,...

Normative analyses of household financial decisions typically assume parameters of the household utility function. Some general issues on parameter assumptions for normative analysis are discussed in this study. We review selected normative household analyses appearing in finance and economics...

We develop a parsimonious econometrics methodology to estimate individual's portfolio return process accounting for self-selection bias from portfolio adjustment; our approach is useful to assist investors learning own return process profile. We study three components to characterize investor's...

Monetary gifts in the form of a gift card can lead one to spend and conceive of these funds differently than if the gift is given as cash. Across four experiments, the presentation of a gift card rather than cash led to both intended and actual spending beyond the amount of the original gift,...

This research investigates a particular type of preference reversal (PR), existing between joint evaluation, where two stimulus options are evaluated side by side simultaneously, and separate evaluation,where these options are evaluated separately.I first examine how this PR differs from other...

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...

We designed a commitment savings product for a Philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology. The savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings, and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism....