Collaborative Research on Self Control and Consumer Choice

尽管经济学家使用的理性选择模型在广泛的人类活动中产生了一系列令人印象深刻的见解，但心理学研究表明，它在一些系统和重要的方面是不准确的。研究人员将继续他们的议程，将心理学上更现实的关于人类行为的假设整合到正式的经济模型中，在那些最不准确的领域修改和改进经济理论。该奖项资助了一项研究，旨在探索消费者购买什么和何时购买之间相互影响的自我控制问题。拟议研究的智力价值在于，它有助于进一步描绘心理学基本课程对基础经济学的影响。事实上，研究人员重新审视了经济行为的核心领域——预算约束下的消费者选择——使用了新兴行为经济学文献中最简单、最成功的模型之一——将自我控制问题建模为对即时满足的时间不一致的品味。对消费者选择的分析，既是一个从经验上确定人们自我控制问题本质的好地方，也是一个自我控制问题可能产生一些最深远影响的领域。这项研究有两个主要目的。第一个研究不健康食品的价格、购买数量和购买时间之间的关系。特别是，自我控制问题可能导致对非线性价格或价格变化的反应，而这些反应在没有自我控制问题的人身上是不会出现的。例如，消费者没有完全预见到他们未来的自我控制问题，可能没有充分利用低价或批量采购的优势，因此最终花费了不必要的钱来购买。第二个要点涉及总消费支出的时间和支出的构成之间的关系。商品的不同之处在于它们提供效用的时间。有些商品，比如餐馆的饭菜和娱乐，提供的大多是短期的快乐。其他商品，如电视、自行车和其他耐用品，既能带来短期的快乐，也能带来长期的快乐。许多商品的影响超出了消费带来的直接愉悦。例如，薯片、苏打水或其他不健康的食品会对未来产生负面影响，而锻炼、文化技能投资和社交网络则会对未来产生积极影响。研究人员表明，对于有自我控制问题的人来说，商品带来快乐和痛苦的确切时间比没有自我控制问题的人重要得多，以及对这些不同类型商品的可获得性和偏好如何极大地改变自我控制问题对消费时间的行为和福利影响。调查人员打算研究，经济学家对个人总体支出和储蓄扭曲的普遍担忧，应该如何根据对购买了哪些商品的担忧来加以补充或修正。事实上，这项研究的更广泛的影响之一是，它可以帮助经济学更现实地分析旨在解决储蓄行为、信用卡借贷、不健康食品过度消费、肥胖和类似现象的政策。虽然这项研究本身是初步的和理论性的，但研究者希望通过将理性选择经济学的许多见解与人们可能对自我控制有限制的认识结合起来，这项研究将提高经济学对这些领域的政策分析的贡献

Although the rational-choice model used by economists has yielded an impressive array of insights across a broad range of human activities, research from psychology suggests that it is inaccurate in some systematic and important ways. The investigators will continue their agenda of integrating psychologically more realistic assumptions about human behavior into formal economic models, to modify and improve economic theory in those areas where it is most importantly inaccurate.This award funds research exploring the implications of self-control problems for the interplay between what consumers buy and when they buy it. The intellectual merit of the proposed research is that it helps to further delineate the implications of basic lessons from psychology for basic economics. Indeed, the investigators revisit a core domain of economic behavior - consumer choice under budget constraints - with one of thesimplest and most successful models from the emerging behavioral-economics literature - selfcontrol problems modeled as a time-inconsistent taste for immediate gratification. The analysis of consumer choice is both a good place to empirically identify the nature of people's self-control problems, and a realm where self-control problems might have some of their most profound effects.The research has two main thrusts. The first studies the relationship between prices, quantity purchased, and timing of purchases for unhealthy goods. In particular, self-control problems can lead to responses to non-linear prices or price variation that would not arise for those without self-control problems. For instance, consumers who don't fully anticipate their future selfcontrol problems may take insufficient advantage of low prices or bulk purchasing, and hence end up spending more than necessary for their purchases.The second thrust concerns the relationship between the timing of total consumptions expenditures and the composition of that spending. Goods differ in terms of when they deliver utility. Some goods, such as restaurant meals and entertainment, deliver mostly short-term pleasure. Other goods, such as TVs, bicycles, and other durables, deliver both short-term and long-term pleasure. And many goods have consequences beyond the direct pleasure from consumption. For instance, potato chips, soda, or other unhealthy goods can create negative future consequences, while exercise, investment in cultural skills, and social networking can create positive future consequences. The investigators show how the exact timing of when goods deliver pleasure and pain is far more important for people with self-control problems than those without, and how the availability and preferences regarding these different types of goods can dramatically change both the behavioral and welfare implications of self-control problems for the timing of consumption. The investigators intend to study how the common worry by economists about distortions in a person's overall spending and savings ought be supplemented or modified in light of concerns about what bundles of goods are being purchased.In fact, among the broader impacts of this research is that it can help move economics to more realistic analysis of policies designed to address savings behavior, credit-card borrowing, overconsumption of unhealthy goods, obesity, and similar phenomena. While the research itself is preliminary and theoretical, the investigators hope that by combining the many insights of rational choice economics with the acknowledgment that people might have limits to their self-control, this research will improve the contribution economics can make to policy analysis in these areas.1