Keeping you in sight: the role of focusing effort in commitment to goals

Matthew Nagler

Economics Bulletin, 2024, vol. 44, issue 4, 1399 - 1405

Abstract: Using a simple consumption-savings model with a ? ? ? agent, I consider how present-biased individuals remain committed to goals. I find that effort expended to maintain focus on future outcomes, represented as an increase to the ? that applies to the agent's next-period self, offsets the effects of present bias and increases progress toward the agent's goal. My model delivers this result without reference-dependent preferences. The greater the present bias, the more focus is necessary to achieve the same progress. While costless focusing brings perfect commitment, individuals fall short of full goal achievement when focusing is costly.

Keywords: goals; focusing attention; self-control; preference for commitment; time inconsistency; hyperbolic discounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 D9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12-30
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