A wine-loving economist we know purchased some nice Bordeaux wines years ago at low prices. The wines have greatly appreciated in value, so that a bottle that cost only $10 when purchased would now fetch $200 at auction. This economist now drinks some of this wine occasionally, but would neither...

Community standards of fairness for the setting of prices and wages were elicited by telephone surveys. In customer or labor markets it isacceptable for a firm to raise prices (or cut wages) when profits arethreatened, and to maintain prices when costs diminish. It is unfair toexploit shifts in...

In this column, we discuss a version of the utility maximization hypothesis that can be tested—and we find that it is false. We review empirical challenges to utility maximization, which return to the old question of whether preferences optimize the experience of outcomes. Much of this work...

People's common propensity to value losses more than otherwise commensurate gains, gives rise to different values of positive and negative changes in entitlements depending on the measure used to assess them. A major implication of the differing valuations is a need to choose an appropriate...

Laboratory and field experiments have grown significantly in prominence over the past decade. The experimental method provides randomization in key variables therefore permitting a deeper understanding of important economic phenomena. This path-breaking volume provides a valuable collection of...

Given the pervasive evidence that people typically value changes in terms of comparisons to a reference state, and that they commonly value losses and reductions of losses more than gains, current risk assessment and valuation practice is likely to lead to systematic bias and distorted guidance....