English

Awareness of self-control

General Economics 2024-02-20 v1 Economics

Abstract

Economists modeled self-control problems in decisions of people with the time-inconsistence preferences model. They argued that the source of self-control problems could be uncertainty and temptation. This paper uses an experimental test offered to individuals instantaneous reward and future rewards to measure awareness of self-control problems in a tempting condition and also measure the effect of commitment and flexibility cost on their welfare. The quasi-hyperbolic discounting model with time discount factor and present bias at the same time was used for making a model for measuring awareness and choice reversal conditions. The test showed 66% awareness of self-control (partially naive behaviors) in individuals. The welfare implication for individuals increased with commitment and flexibility costs. The result can be useful in marketing and policy-making fields design precisely offers for customers and society.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.11072,
  title  = {Awareness of self-control},
  author = {Mohammad Mehdi Mousavi and Mahdi Kohan Sefidi and Shirin Allahyarkhani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.11072},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

23 pages, 8 Tables, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:51:27.188Z