Inter-temporal decisions involves assigning values to various payoffs occurring at different temporal distances. Past research has used different approaches to study these decisions made by humans and animals. For instance, considering that people discount future payoffs at a constant rate...

This chapter provides an introduction to choice models based on the principle of direct utility maximization. Models of direct utility are characterized by specifications of the utility function and accompanying budget constraint that allows separation of what is gained (i.e., utility) from that...

This paper analyzes the effects of forward-looking metrics on employee decision-making. We use data from a bank that started providing branch managers with the customer lifetime value (CLV) — an estimate of the future value of the customer relationship — of mortgage applicants. The data...

We examine the nature of best-worst data for modeling consumer preferences and predicting their choices. We show that, contrary to the assumption of widely used models, the best and worst responses do not originate from the same data-generating process. We propose a sequential evaluation model...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a simulation of marketing budgeting rules that is based on a simplified version of the market share attraction model. The budgeting rules are roughly equivalent to those that may be used in practice. The simulation illustrates the concept of path...

This paper examines how data-driven personalized decisions can be made while preserving consumer privacy. Our setting is one in which the firm chooses a personalized price based on each new customer's vector of individual features; the true set of individual demand-generating parameters is...

Artificial intelligence is at the heart of current debates related to ethical, social and political issues of technological innovation. This briefing refocuses attention from the technoethical challenges of AI to artificial decision-making (ADM) and the questions related to delegating human...

This paper provides a theoretical rationale for private investment in basic research. It explains the decision by some firms to hire scientists who have an intrinsic motivation to pursue academic research and allow them to do so while they also dedicate time to the firm's applied agenda. We show...

A Bayesian decision maker is choosing among two alternatives with uncertain payoffs and an outside option with known payoff. Before deciding which alternative to adopt, the decision maker can purchase sequentially multiple informative signals on each of the two alternatives. To maximize the...

The belief that individual difference in brand preference or choice behavior are caused by personality differences has not always been supported by empirical research. The experiment on the variety seeking behavior of consumers, discussed in this paper argues that although consumers are seeking...