In important situations, individual decision-making is systematically biased. Whendeciding (rather than consuming), extrinsic attributes of choice options are more salient thanintrinsic attributes. People overestimate extrinsic attributes and therefore put too much effortinto acquiring income...

A crucial aspect of constitutional design is the provision of rules onhow a constitution is to be amended. If procedures for constitutional amendmentare very restrictive, changes will take place outside the constitution. Thesechanges are likely to be against the citizens’ interests and their...

World governance today is characterized by international organizationslacking democratic legitimacy and control by the citizens they claim to represent. Theyare also criticized for being inefficient. This leads to violent protests and to NGOs havinggreat influence. To address these problems, we...

People not only obtain utility from actual outcomes but also from the conditionswhich lead to these outcomes. The paper proposes an economic concept of this notion ofprocedural utility. Preferences beyond outcome can be manifold. We distinguish proceduralutility people get from institutions as...