We study how reference dependence and loss aversion motivate highly experienced agents, professional basketball players. Loss aversion predicts losing motivates if the reference point is fixed and losing discourages if it adjusts quickly. We find a “losing motivates effect” so large that an...

In settings with uncertainty, tension exists between ex ante and ex post notions of fairness (e.g., equal opportunity versus equal outcomes). In a laboratory experiment, the most common behavioral pattern is for subjects to select the ex ante fair alternative ex ante, and switch to the ex post...

In settings with uncertainty, tension exists between ex ante and ex post notions of fairness (e.g., equal opportunity versus equal outcomes). In a laboratory experiment, the most common behavioral pattern is for subjects to select the ex ante fair alternative ex ante, and switch to the ex post...