Lack of Urgency Can Undermine a Popular Behavioral Nudge
Encouraging pre-commitment to a future behavior helps people do hard things — but it can backfire
As Concentrated Shareholder Ownership Rises, Wages and Employment Suffer
Where big investors gather, corporate wealth is reallocated away from workers
Vacation Mindset: How Weekends Can Be More Refreshing
Researchers told subjects to treat their weekend like a vacation, then gauged happiness on Monday
A ‘Safer’ Treasury Bond
The government’s floating rate notes feature an added measure of security: higher interest earnings in times of rising rates
Trying Out Bonus-Pay Theory on Unsupervised, Low-Skill Tasks
Incentives boost output, but benefits level off at a fairly low point
What Do You Know About Happiness?
And, for that matter, emergency room doctors, recession birthrates and job markets in which employers don’t compete much
Diversity: Measuring How and Why Groups See It Differently
Perceived differences between “diverse” and “sufficiently diverse”
Do Social Laws Always Cause a Backlash?
Laws that threaten ideological preferences prompt some opponents to adopt more extreme beliefs
Our Flawed Pursuit of Happiness — and How to Get It Right
New approaches to spending and time-management examine how our actions do or don't influence our level of satisfaction
Round-Number Bids Are Costly, but Up the Odds of a Deal
Buyers of private firms signal willingness to move fast
Mortgage Prepayments: Factors beyond Interest Rate Movements
A model estimates the impact of economic variables on the pricing of prepayment risk
Impact of High-Speed Rail: Surprising Data on Real Estate Prices
In Japan, speedier commutes let workers live farther from jobs, taking some pressure off high-priced housing markets
Keynes vs. FDR: Lessons from the Great Recession
Sebastian Edwards finds Keynes’ public take-down of Roosevelt’s gold policies still relevant today
The Unhappy Quest for a Happiness Index
Pushing aside GDP for a measure of human well-being turns out to be very, very difficult. Ask Dan Benjamin
Head Start, the Public Preschool Program, More Than Pays for Itself
Large study sees increases in education, declines in public assistance
Americans Want to Help Poor People, but Only the Hard-Working Poor
Biases around race, nation-of-origin and disability are small compared to the preference for helping the diligent