Goals and bracketing under mental accounting

作者：Koch Alexander K; Nafziger Julia

来源：Journal of Economic Theory, 2016, 162: 305-351.

DOI：10.1016/j.jet.2016.01.001

• Quasi-hyperbolic discounting
• Reference-dependent preferences
• Self-control
• Mental accounting
• Choice bracketing
• Goals

Behavioral economics struggles to explain why people sometimes evaluate outcomes separately (narrow bracketing of mental accounts) and sometimes jointly (broad bracketing). We develop a theory of endogenous bracketing, where people set goals to tackle self-control problems. Goals induce reference points that make substandard performance painful. Evaluating goals in a broadly bracketed mental account insulates an individual from exogenous risk of failure; but because decisions or risks in different tasks become substitutes there are incentives to deviate from goals that are absent under narrow bracketing. Extensions include goal revision, naivete about self-control, income targeting, and firms' bundling strategies.

• 出版日期2016-3