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Willpower and the Optimal Control of Visceral Urges

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Author Info
Emre Ozdenoren
Stephen Salant
Dan Silverman

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Abstract

Common intuition and experimental psychology suggest that the ability to self-regulate, willpower, is a depletable resource. We investigate the behavior of an agent who optimally consumes a cake (or paycheck or workload) over time and who recognizes that restraining his consumption too much would exhaust his willpower and leave him unable to manage his consumption. Unlike prior models of self-control, a model with willpower depletion can explain the increasing consumption sequences observable in high frequency data (and corresponding laboratory findings), the apparent links between unrelated self-control behaviors, and the altered economic behavior following imposition of cognitive loads. At the same time, willpower depletion provides an alternative explanation for a taste for commitment, intertemporal preference reversals, and procrastination. Accounting for willpower depletion thus provides a more unified theory of time preference. It also provides an explanation for anomalous intratemporal behaviors such as low correlations between health-related activities.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12278.

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Date of creation: Jun 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12278

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D9 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth
J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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References listed on IDEAS
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
  5. Ariel Rubinstein, 2003. ""Economics and Psychology"? The Case of Hyperbolic Discounting," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(4), pages 1207-1216, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Benabou, R. & Tirole, J., 2001. "Willpower and Personal Rules," Papers 216, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
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    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Just, David R. & Mancino, Lisa & Wansink, Brian, 2007. "Could Behavioral Economics Help Improve Diet Quality for Nutrition Assistance Program Participants?," Economic Research Report 6391, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ahmed Khwaja & Dan Silverman & Frank Sloan, 2006. "Time Preference, Time Discounting, and Smoking Decisions," NBER Working Papers 12615, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Klaus Nehring, 2006. "Self-Control through Second-Order Preferences," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000391, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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