Elementary consumer theory assumes that prices affect demand only because they affect the budget constraint (BC). By contrast, several models suggest that prices can affect demand through other channels (e.g. because they signal quality). This alternative conjecture is consistent with evidence...

We investigate the relationship between (a) official information on COVID-19 infection and death case counts; (b) beliefs about such case counts, at present and in the future; (c) beliefs about average infection chance—in principle, directly calculable from (b); and (d) self-reported...

From February to April 2020, as COVID-19 hit the U.S. economy, the official unemployment rate (UR) climbed from 3.5 percent--the lowest in more than 50 years--to 14.7--the highest since current measurement began in January 1948. This unprecedented, speedy quadrupling of UR coincided with major...

In early August, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel disbursed one-time, universal grants to its citizens, of $220 per adult and $150 per child. Using survey data, we estimate that 25-45 percent either had already mostly spent or were planning to spend the money by year's end and 36-52...

What utility notion do self-reported well-being (SWB) questions measure? We clarify the assumptions that underlie existing applications regarding the (i) life domains, (ii) time horizons, and (iii) other-regarding preferences captured by SWB data. We ask survey respondents what they had in mind...

This paper is aimed to assess, with two lab experiments, to what extent Kőszegi and Rabin's (2006) model of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences can explain Knetsch's (1989) endowment effect. Departing from past work, we design an experiment that treats the two goods (a mug and a...

Are subjective well-being (SWB) measures a good empirical proxy for utility? We evaluate one necessary assumption: that people's preferences coincide with what they predict will maximize their SWB. Our method is to present survey respondents with hypothetical scenarios and elicit both choice and...

"Our fourth streamlined edition arrives in the midst of some of the most dramatic upheavals ever witnessed, both in the economy generally and in higher education in particular. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced levels of unemployment not seen since the Great Depression and has created dramatic...

"lthough many millions of dollars are spent each year on introductory economics instruction in American colleg-es and universities, the return on this investment has been disturbingly low. Studies have shown, for example, that several months after having taken a principles of economics course,...