Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Understanding the Sunk Cost Fallacy and the Role of Economic Incentives

该奖项为科比·科林·魏格尔在斯坦利·雷诺兹教授的监督下进行的实验室实验提供资金。实验检验了在动态环境下，明确的经济激励对个体决策的影响。心理学和营销学的研究表明，一旦人们将资源投入到决策中，他们往往会继续采取某种行动，即使这样做不再理性，人们也会继续这样做。这些实验验证了这样一种假设，即明确定义的环境和明确的经济激励措施纠正了这一趋势。以前的学者认为，因为人们一旦拥有了“沉没”的资源，就会坚持自己的行动路线，因此很难改变这样的行动路线。这已被用作营销活动和鼓励采用新技术的努力的基础。由该奖项资助的新研究可能会对如何营销创新产品产生新的见解。

This award provides funding for laboratory experiments conducted by coPI Collin Weigel under the supervision of Prof. Stanley Reynolds. The experiments test the effects of clear economic incentives on individual decision making in dynamic environments. Research in psychology and marketing suggests that people tend to continue on a course of action once they have sunk resources into their decisions, and that people continue even when it is no longer rational to do so. The experiments test the hypothesis that a clearly defined environment and clear economic incentives correct this tendency. Previous scholars have argued that because people stick with their course of action once they have 'sunk' resources, it is very difficult to change such a course of action. This has been used as the basis for marketing campaigns and for efforts to encourage the adoption of new technologies. The new research funded by this award may result in new insights about how to market innovative products.