This paper explores how an individual can deceive herself in order to acquire a more favorable self-view. I present a theoretical model and a laboratory experiment in which each subject's donation to a charity gets transformed into an ambiguous lottery, i.e., a lottery where the winning...

This article offers a proposal for the regulation of stem cell products by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) that corresponds to a specialized product liability scheme. It shows how product liability and administrative law can be successfully integrated to create a comprehensive legal...

We combine the Critical Cost Efficiency Index and the Houtman Maks Index to evaluate the consistency of subjects in a set of choice data from budgets. We show that by simply allowing subjects for one significant mistake (by removing the worst observation), the mean Critical Cost Efficiency Index...

Studies show that consumers are often unaware of the price of their purchases. We examine if such ignorance may be willful. We develop a model entailing consumers who may feel conflicted about spending – some people have an inherent preference for overspending (“spendthrifts”). We show...

Diffusion of microgeneration technologies, particularly rooftop photovoltaic (PV), represents a key option in reducing emissions in the residential sector. We use a uniquely rich dataset from the burgeoning residential PV market in Texas to study the nature of the consumer's decision-making...

How do individuals process non-diagnostic information? According to Bayes’ Theorem, signals which do not carry relevant information about the objective state of the world are treated as if no signal occurred. This paper provides experimental evidence that individuals update their expectations...

We combine the Critical Cost Efficiency Index and the Houtman Maks Index to evaluate the consistency of subjects in a set of choice data from budgets. We show that by simply allowing subjects for one significant mistake (by removing the worst observation), the mean Critical Cost Efficiency Index...

Realizing the environmental benefits of solar photovoltaics (PV) will require reducing costs associated with perception, informational gaps, and technological uncertainties. To identify opportunities to decrease costs associated with residential PV adoption, in this paper we use multivariate...

Studying the behavioral aspects of the individual decision-making process is important in identifying and addressing barriers in the adoption of residential solar photovoltaic (PV). However, there is little systematic research focusing on these aspects of residential PV in Texas, an important,...

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss how regulatory focus theory, a theory of motivation and self-regulation, can be drawn upon to explain a variety of consumer decision making phenomena. We briefly review the major tenets of the theory, which proposes a fundamental distinction between two...