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，但心理学的研究表明，该模型在某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，将关于人类行为的心理学上更现实的假设整合到正式的经济模型中，在最重要的不准确领域修改和改进经济理论。这一奖项用于探索自我控制问题对消费者购买什么和何时购买之间相互作用的影响的研究。这项拟议研究的学术价值在于，它有助于进一步阐明心理学基础课程对基础经济学的影响。事实上，研究人员用新兴的行为经济学文献中最简单、最成功的模型之一--自我控制问题--重新审视了经济行为的一个核心领域--预算约束下的消费者选择--自我控制问题被建模为对即时满足的时间不一致偏好。消费者选择的分析既是从经验上确定人们自我控制问题的性质的好地方，也是自我控制问题可能产生一些最深刻影响的领域。这项研究有两个主要推动力。第一个研究不健康商品的价格、购买量和购买时机之间的关系。特别是，自我控制问题可以导致对非线性价格或价格变化的反应，而对于那些没有自我控制问题的人来说，这是不会出现的。例如，消费者没有充分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购买，从而最终花费超过他们所需的购买。第二个重点涉及总消费支出的时间与支出构成之间的关系。商品在何时提供效用方面有所不同。一些商品，如餐厅用餐和娱乐，主要带来短期的愉悦。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。而且，许多商品的后果超出了消费带来的直接快乐。例如，薯片、汽水或其他不健康的商品可能会产生负面的未来后果，而锻炼、文化技能投资和社交网络则会产生积极的未来后果。研究人员展示了，对于有自我控制问题的人来说，商品何时传递快乐和痛苦的准确时机比那些没有自我控制问题的人要重要得多，以及对这些不同类型商品的可用性和偏好如何极大地改变自我控制问题对消费时机的行为和福利影响。研究人员打算研究如何根据人们对购买商品捆绑的担忧来补充或修正经济学家对个人总体支出和储蓄扭曲的普遍担忧。事实上，这项研究的更广泛影响之一是，它可以帮助经济学对旨在解决储蓄行为、信用卡借款、过度消费不健康商品、肥胖和类似现象的政策进行更现实的分析。虽然这项研究本身是初步的和理论的，但研究人员希望，通过将理性选择经济学的许多见解与人们对自我控制可能有限的认识结合起来，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