Addiction and Cue-Conditioned Cognitive Processes

B. Douglas Bernheim and Antonio Rangel ()

No 9329, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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 decision-making and addiction. The model is analytically tractable, and it accounts for a broad range of stylized facts concerning addiction. It also generates a plausible qualitative mapping from the characteristics of substances into consumption patterns, thereby providing a basis for empirical tests. Finally, the theory provides a clear standard for evaluating social welfare, and it has a number of striking policy implications.

JEL-codes: D0 D1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-hea
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9329.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Addiction and Cue-Conditioned Cognitive Processes (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9329

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9329

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().