Quicksand or Bedrock for Behavioral Economics? Assessing Foundational Empirical Questions

Victor Stango, Joanne Yoong and Jonathan Zinman

No 23625, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Behavioral economics lacks empirical evidence on some foundational empirical questions. We adapt standard elicitation methods to measure multiple behavioral factors per person in a representative U.S. sample, along with financial condition, cognitive skills, financial literacy, classical preferences and demographics. Individually, B-factors are prevalent, distinct from other decision inputs, and correlate negatively with financial outcomes in richly-conditioned regressions. Conditioning further on other B-factors does not change the results, validating common practice of modeling B-factors separately. Corrections for low task/survey effort modestly strengthen the results. Our findings provide bedrock empirical foundations for behavioral economics, and offer methodological guidance for research designs.

JEL-codes: D03 D14 D8 D9 E03 G02 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hme and nep-upt
Note: AG AP DEV EEE EFG EH IO LE LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Quicksand or Bedrock for Behavioral Economics? Assessing Foundational Empirical Questions (2018)
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