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Behavioral Economics Commons

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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Behavioral Economics

Conspicuous Conservation And Private Provision Of Public Goods, Steven E. Sexton, Alison Sexton Jul 2011

Conspicuous Conservation And Private Provision Of Public Goods, Steven E. Sexton, Alison Sexton

Steven E. Sexton

No abstract provided.


Conspicuous Conservation: The Prius Effect And Willingness To Pay For Environmental Bona Fides, Steven E. Sexton Jun 2011

Conspicuous Conservation: The Prius Effect And Willingness To Pay For Environmental Bona Fides, Steven E. Sexton

Steven E. Sexton

The notion that individuals seek status among their peers predates economics. A considerable literature has relied on status-seeking motives to explain anomalies in consumption behavior, such as upward sloping demand curves and persistent demand for luxury brand items that provide the same functionality as cheaper alternatives. As social norms change, so may the social response to signals. In particular, there is anecdotal evidence that amid growing concern about climate change and environmental degradation, costly signals of austerity may afford the status once reserved for those who displayed ostentation. In this paper, we develop a theory of conspicuous conservation and test …


Did High Gas Prices Cause The Great Recession? Theory And Empirical Evidence, Steven E. Sexton, Junjie Wu, David Zilberman Jun 2011

Did High Gas Prices Cause The Great Recession? Theory And Empirical Evidence, Steven E. Sexton, Junjie Wu, David Zilberman

Steven E. Sexton

No abstract provided.


Paying For Pollution? How General Equilibrium Effects Undermine The 'Spare The Air' Program, Steven E. Sexton Mar 2011

Paying For Pollution? How General Equilibrium Effects Undermine The 'Spare The Air' Program, Steven E. Sexton

Steven E. Sexton

Policy-makers have relied on non-coercive mechanisms to achieve socially optimal outcomes in a variety of contexts when prices fail to ration scarce resources. Amid heightened concern about environmental damage and climate change, public appeals for cooperation and pecuniary incentives are frequently used to achieve resource conservation and other prosocial behavior. Yet the relative effectiveness of these two instruments is poorly understood when pecuniary incentives are small. This paper examines the extent to which free transit fares and appeals for car trip avoidance reduce car pollution on smoggy days. Using data on freeway traffic volumes and transit ridership, public appeals for …