Compulsive shopping and spending is described as a pattern of chronic, repetitive purchasing that becomes difficult to stop and ultimately results in harmful consequences. It is defined as an impulse control disorder and has features similar to other addictive disorders without involving the use...

This paper tests whether young and adult smokers have different time preferences, in particular with respect to time consistency. The recent introduction of Tobacco 21 law in the US were in part motivated by allegedly inconsistent time preferences of the young consumers. This research...

There have been more than 500,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2000. To analyze the opioid epidemic, we construct a model where individuals, with and without pain, choose whether to misuse opioids knowing the probabilities of addiction and dying. These odds are functions of opioid use. Markov...

We study competition for consumer attention, in which platforms can sacrifice service quality for attention. A platform can choose the "addictiveness" of its service. A more addictive platform yields consumers a lower utility of participation but a higher marginal utility of allocating...

While under communism the identity-providing religion was suppressed, religiosity is strong today even among the youth in post-communist countries. This provides an appropriate background to investigate how external and internal religiosity relates to risky behaviors like smoking, drinking, and...

I derive a simple closed-form formula for the optimal tax on addictive goods when consumers with hyperbolic time preferences erroneously and naïvely believe that they will go through with the consumption plan they devise in the present. In the literature, this problem is well studied for...

Current evidence is still mixed regarding the effectiveness of smoking bans for reducing firsthand smoking. We provide novel insights about their effects on young adults' smoking prevalence, initiation and cessation. We also highlight the importance of considering enforcement and addiction...

There is a large body of literature in both psychology and economics documenting mistaken perceptions of randomness. In this paper we demonstrate that people appear to believe that "lightning will strike twice" when it comes to lottery jackpots. First, we show that in the week following the sale...

Many have argued that digital technologies such as smartphones and social media are addictive. We develop an economic model of digital addiction and estimate it using a randomized experiment. Temporary incentives to reduce social media use have persistent effects, suggesting social media are...

While under communism, identity-providing religion was suppressed, religiosity is strong today even among the youth in post-communist countries. This provides an appropriate background to investigate how external and internal religiosity relates to addictive behaviors like smoking, drinking and...

We propose an economic theory of addiction based on the premise that cognitive mechanisms such as attention affect behavior independently of preferences. We argue that the theory is consistent with foundational evidence (e.g. from neurosciencee and psychology) concerning the nature of...

After a discussion of cigarette smoking in the context of the Becker-Murphy (1988) model of rational addictive behavior, demand equations are derived accounting for the tolerance, reinforcement, and withdrawal characteristic of addictive consumption. These are contrasted to equations developed...

We study competition for consumer attention in which platforms can sacrifice service quality for attention. A platform can choose the "addictiveness" of service; a more addictive platform yields consumers a lower utility of participation but a higher marginal utility of allocating attention. We...

Consumption of addictive goods is subject to habit formation. Forward-looking individuals must, therefore, be concerned about future prices when making current consumption decisions. We study prices for tobacco products based on a unique data set provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our...

A standard model of addictive process is Becker and Murphy's rational addiction' model, which has the key empirical prediction that the current consumption of addictive goods should respond to future prices, and the key normative prediction that the optimal government regulation of addictive...

A large literature examines the addictive properties of such behaviors as smoking, drinking alcohol and eating. We argue that for some people addictive behavior may apply to a much more central aspect of economic life: working. Workaholism is subject to the same concerns about the individual as...

The obesity rate has grown to epidemic proportions in the United States. Recent scientific studies suggest that excess intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is one of the primary contributors to weight gain. One option to address the growing obesity epidemic is to discourage SSB consumption...

We use a framework suggested by a model of rational addiction to analyze empirically the demand for cigarettes. The data consist of per capita cigarettes sales (in packs) annually by state for the period 1955 through 1985. The empirical results provide support for the implications of a rational...

What I would like to speak of in this piece is not only to discuss the way addiction is formulated by the practices and tactics of law whether through poverty law or otherwise, but to say that law itself is addition, and addiction is law. Combining desire and destruction through the work of...

We develop a new model of addictive behavior that takes as a starting point the classic rational addiction model of Becker and Murphy, but incorporates uncertainty. We model uncertainty through the Brownian motion process. This process is used to capture both random events such as exposure to...

A large literature examines the addictive properties of such behaviors as smoking, drinking alcohol and eating. We argue that for some people addictive behavior may apply to a much more central aspect of economic life: working. Workaholism is subject to the same concerns about the individual as...

Cigarette demand equations, derived from the Becker-Murphy model of rational addictive behavior, are estimated separately for men and women. These demand equations account for the reinforcement, tolerance, and withdrawal factors characterizing addictive consumption. Results obtained from these...

The main purpose of this research is to understand the patterns of consumption of addictive goods, their economic and welfare consequences for society and the long-run effect of tax policy in a dynamic general equilibrium model of rational addiction. In contrast to prior research, we allow...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect that mental illness has on the demand for addictive goods. Mental illness could affect the level of consumption of addictive goods and could affect the price elasticities of addictive goods. Demand theory suggests that mental illness would...

Auction theories are believed to provide a better selling opportunity for the resources to be allocated. Various organizations have took measures to increase trust among participants towards their auction system, but trust alone cannot ensure a high level of participation. We propose a new type...

At the onset of the financial crisis, the Indian regulator allowed banks to restructure loans without downgrading and providing for them. The special treatment to the infrastructure sector, plausibly driven by the political economy, and heterogeneity in bank exposure provide identification. Even...

A subset of harm reduction strategies encourages individuals to switch from a harmful addictive good to a less harmful addictive good; examples include e-cigarettes (substitutes for combustible cigarettes) and methadone and buprenorphine (substitutes for opioids). Such harm reduction methods have...

Recently some general agreements have been achieved regarding the current status of work addiction. One of the key criteria for conceptualizing a behavioral addiction is the harm caused by the behavior. It has been argued that in the case of work addiction, special attention should be devoted to...

Auction theories are believed to provide a better selling opportunity for the resources to be allocated. Various organizations have taken measures to increase trust among participants towards their auction system, but trust alone cannot ensure a high level of participation. We propose a new type...

The milk addiction paradox refers to an empirical finding in which commodities that are typically considered to be non addictive, such as milk, appear instead to be addictive. This result seems more likely when there is persistence in consumption and when using aggregate data, and it suggests...

Objective – This study looks at the addiction behaviour of Pokémon Go players in Malaysia. Its purpose is to identify the addiction behaviour of Pokémon Go players in terms of their awareness and attitude. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the objectives of the study are:(1) to...

The milk addiction paradox refers to an empirical finding in which commodities that are typically considered to be non addictive, such as milk, appear instead to be addictive. This result seems more likely when there is persistence in consumption and when using aggregate data, and it suggests...

This paper deals with one of the main empirical problems associated with the rational addiction theory, namely that its derived demand equation is not empirically distinguishable from models with forward looking behavior, but with time inconsistent preferences. The implication is that, even when...