Futile attempts at self-control

Paul Heidhues; Botond Koszegi

doi:10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423

Futile attempts at self-control

Paul Heidhues^*
, Botond Koszegi

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Bonn
University of California at Berkeley

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

We investigate costly yet futile attempts at self-control when consumption of a harmful product has a binary breakdown/no-breakdown nature and individuals tend to underestimate their need for self-control. Considering time-inconsistent preferences as well as temptation disutility, we show that becoming more sophisticated can decrease welfare and investigate what kind of mistaken beliefs lead to low welfare. With time-inconsistent preferences, being close to perfectly understanding one's preferences but assigning zero probability to true preferences induces the worst outcome.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	423-434
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume	7
Issue number	2-3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423
State	Published - Mar 2009
Externally published	Yes

Access to Document

10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423

Cite this

@article{99f6db45bb204f9db424a57450cb84b4,

title = "Futile attempts at self-control",

abstract = "We investigate costly yet futile attempts at self-control when consumption of a harmful product has a binary breakdown/no-breakdown nature and individuals tend to underestimate their need for self-control. Considering time-inconsistent preferences as well as temptation disutility, we show that becoming more sophisticated can decrease welfare and investigate what kind of mistaken beliefs lead to low welfare. With time-inconsistent preferences, being close to perfectly understanding one's preferences but assigning zero probability to true preferences induces the worst outcome.",

author = "Paul Heidhues and Botond Koszegi",

year = "2009",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "423--434",

journal = "Journal of the European Economic Association",

issn = "1542-4766",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "2-3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Futile attempts at self-control

AU - Heidhues, Paul

AU - Koszegi, Botond

PY - 2009/3

Y1 - 2009/3

N2 - We investigate costly yet futile attempts at self-control when consumption of a harmful product has a binary breakdown/no-breakdown nature and individuals tend to underestimate their need for self-control. Considering time-inconsistent preferences as well as temptation disutility, we show that becoming more sophisticated can decrease welfare and investigate what kind of mistaken beliefs lead to low welfare. With time-inconsistent preferences, being close to perfectly understanding one's preferences but assigning zero probability to true preferences induces the worst outcome.

AB - We investigate costly yet futile attempts at self-control when consumption of a harmful product has a binary breakdown/no-breakdown nature and individuals tend to underestimate their need for self-control. Considering time-inconsistent preferences as well as temptation disutility, we show that becoming more sophisticated can decrease welfare and investigate what kind of mistaken beliefs lead to low welfare. With time-inconsistent preferences, being close to perfectly understanding one's preferences but assigning zero probability to true preferences induces the worst outcome.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/67650752952

U2 - 10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423

DO - 10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.423

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:67650752952

SN - 1542-4766

VL - 7

SP - 423

EP - 434

JO - Journal of the European Economic Association

JF - Journal of the European Economic Association

IS - 2-3

ER -

Futile attempts at self-control

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this