{"title":"Planning to Binge: How Consumers Choose to Allocate Media Viewing Time","authors":"Joy Lu, U. Karmarkar, V. Venkatraman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3493755","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3493755","url":null,"abstract":"As streaming media online has become more common, many firms have embraced the phenomenon of “binge-watching” by offering their customers entire seasons of a television-style series at once. We show that consumers, in turn, can plan to binge content, and that planning to binge is more likely to be preferred when a show’s individual episodes are perceived to be sequential and connected, as opposed to when episodes are independent with points of closure. Furthermore, consumers considering future media consumption are willing to spend both time (i.e., by delaying consumption) and money for the opportunity to binge later. Our findings extend across both hedonic and utilitarian content, as well as to the execution of media consumption. Thus, we expand upon the traditional view of binge consumption being a purely indulgent or impulsive behavior, and propose that the structure of the media content is an important factor in consumers’ plans to binge. These findings have implications for how media firms might curate their content portfolios in ways that allow them to tailor their offerings to a range of consumption styles and preferences.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125718202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Age Do You Feel? - Subjective Age Identity and Economic Behaviors","authors":"Zihan Ye, Thomas Post","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3236603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3236603","url":null,"abstract":"Building on recent findings in psychology, we study the impact of subjective age (feeling younger or older than one’s chronological age) on economic behaviors. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study we find that subjective age predicts economic behaviors: Individuals with younger age identities have higher work engagement, and their savings profile, as a function of the subjective age gap, is hump-shaped. The effects are economically significant, for example, increasing the subjective age gap by one standard deviation increases an individual’s likelihood to be employed in a subsequent HRS wave by 1.1% (about 21% of the conditional mean). The relationships found are consistent with an interplay of two subjective age channels: Ability (self-perceived abilities to perform certain economic behaviors) and Behavior (choosing (avoiding) “young” (“old”) behaviors). Our results have implications for age-dependent policies that traditionally target individuals based on chronological age.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127938848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consumption Trends and the Warehouse Club Retail Format","authors":"Anthony J. Dukes, Tansev Geylani, K. Srinivasan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3194302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3194302","url":null,"abstract":"Is there is a connection between the emergence of the warehouse clubs and Americans’ unparalleled consumption levels? Since emerging in 1983, warehouse club growth has outpaced that of traditional grocery stores. Individual consumption in the US has grown concurrently. Using standard principles from microeconomics, we postulate that consumers’ increasing acquisitiveness is sufficient to explain (i) why warehouse clubs have grown at a faster rate than the traditional retailers; and (ii) how the emergence of the warehouse club may have accelerated the growth in personal consumption.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121344988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Targeted Advertising: The Modern Lemons Market","authors":"Folakunmi Pinheiro","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3744443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3744443","url":null,"abstract":"Free online content and services are increasingly important to our private, public, and professional lives. The business model which supports these services is the targeted advertising model and it has been hotly debated. However, the debate—which has largely focused on the consumer welfare benefits or lack thereof of the business model—is yet to come to a definitive conclusion on whether the business model should be regulated or not. In this article, I argue that, at present, it is not possible to determine whether targeted advertising increases consumer welfare or not. Nevertheless, I also argue that there is still a ground for regulating targeted advertising—through correcting the information asymmetry that exists between consumers and online platforms.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124763863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"GHH Preferences on Households' Portfolio Choices: Theoretical Implications and Empirical Evidence","authors":"Z. Cai, Haiyong Liu, Xuan Liu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3319315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3319315","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores theoretical implications and empirical evidence of GHH preferences [Greenwood et al. (1988)] over portfolio choices. First, we analytically solve a parsimonious life-cycle portfolio choice model with the GHH preferences and endogenous labor-leisure choice. Second, our analytical solution identifies four effects due to the GHH preferences (through endogenous labor-leisure choices) on risky shares; and it shows that two net effects hinge on the value of one key structural parameter. Third, we empirically test main theoretical predictions with the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data. Overall, the estimation results provide empirical evidence in support of certain key implications out of GHH preferences. Thus, our analysis sheds light on one of the most fundamental, yet highly contentious, questions in quantitative macroeconomic analysis: the choice of utility functions in a representative agent model when portfolio choices are of concern.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116650719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ERN: ConsumptionPub Date : 2019-02-01DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2019.012
Ana Aizcorbe, David M. Byrne, Daniel E. Sichel
{"title":"Getting Smart About Phones: New Price Indexes and the Allocation of Spending between Devices and Services Plans in Personal Consumption Expenditures","authors":"Ana Aizcorbe, David M. Byrne, Daniel E. Sichel","doi":"10.17016/FEDS.2019.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2019.012","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses two measurement issues for mobile phones. First, we develop a new mobile phone price index using hedonic quality-adjusted prices for smartphones and a matched-model index for feature phones. Our index falls at an average annual rate of 17 percent during 2010-2018, close to the rate of decline in the price index used in the GDP Accounts. Given relatively flat average prices over this period, our index points to substantial quality improvement. Second, we propose a methodology to disentangle purchases of phones and wireless services when they are bundled together as part of a long-term service contract. Getting the allocation right is especially important for real PCE because the price deflators for phones and wireless services exhibit very different trends. Our adjusted estimates suggest that real PCE spending currently captured in the category Cellular Phone Services increased 4 percentage points faster than is reflected in published data.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125273681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How the ATM Affects the Way We Pay","authors":"Oz Shy","doi":"10.29338/wp2019-02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29338/wp2019-02","url":null,"abstract":"Cash users withdraw money from automated teller machines (ATMs) to finance cash payments. However, most ATMs in the United States dispense only multiples of $20 bills. The paper first constructs a consumer's optimization model showing how the precise denomination of dollar bills available from ATMs affects consumers' decision whether to pay with cash or with (plastic) cards. Then, the paper uses various statistical techniques to conduct empirical analyses of consumers who choose to pay cash for transactions below a certain threshold payment amount and pay with cards for transactions exceeding that threshold.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127411627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pairwise Normalization: A Neuroeconomic Theory of Multi-Attribute Choice","authors":"P. Landry, Ryan Webb","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2963863","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2963863","url":null,"abstract":"We present a theory of multi-attribute choice founded in the neuroscience of perception. According to our theory, valuation is formed through a series of pairwise, attribute-level comparisons implemented by (divisive) normalization — a normatively-grounded form of relative value coding observed across sensory modalities and in species ranging from honeybees to humans. As we demonstrate, “pairwise normalization” captures a broad range of behavioral regularities, including the compromise and asymmetric dominance effects, the diversification bias in allocation decisions, and majority-rule preference cycles (among several others). The model also offers a potential neurobiological foundation for Cobb-Douglas preferences and other classic microeconomic preference representations.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121984436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music Consumption Decisions with Non-Durable Streaming Options","authors":"Jason M. Walter, R. S. Hiller","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3274990","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3274990","url":null,"abstract":"Consumers are increasingly purchasing non-durable music products, consumed through a streaming bundle delivered via a subscription model. In this paper we examine how individual preferences influence a consumer's music format decision. We analyze consumption differences between durable retail music products and non-durable streaming music subscription bundles. A user's preferred format depend on the intensity of their music interests, scope of interests, and how quickly a song's utility depreciates. Our empirical analysis shows that streaming consumers have greater depreciation rates than the traditional distribution of terrestrial radio, and that digital sales decline at a slower rate than does the usage of the streaming version. Our theory model and empirical evidence suggest that consumers prefer a non-durable subscription over a durable purchase of information goods when they have higher depreciation rates or a greater scope of music interests. Using simulation, we identify the ideal consumption format for consumers based on their individual listening preferences.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113974791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Coarse Revealed Preference","authors":"Gaoji Hu, Jiangtao Li, J. Quah, Rui Tang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3303602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3303602","url":null,"abstract":"We identify necessary and sufficient conditions under which a coarse data set can be coarsely rationalized by a linear order (or weak order). The conditions are easy to check, and efficient algorithms are provided. We apply our theory to investigate the observable restrictions of several economic models including (1) rational choice with imperfect observation; (2) multiple preferences; (3) monotone multiple preferences; and (4) minimax regret.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"99 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130618037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}