Carla Fried

Writer

About

Carla Fried is a freelance journalist who specializes in personal finance, with a keen interest in how behavioral issues impact consumer decisions. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Money magazine, Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC and Consumer Reports.

A man shopping for soap Research Brief / Marketing

When It Pays Not to Help Your Customers Comparison Shop

Rakesh Sarin creates a model that shows consumer “ambiguity” about product quality should drive marketing and brand management strategy

Illustrations of a timeline Feature / Time

An Aerial, as Opposed to Ground-Level, View of Time

A novel framework proposes to reduce angst over schedules and lives

A castle with a moat Research Brief / Investing

The Moat That Keeps Complex Asset Strategies Profitable

Andrea Eisfeldt finds that hedge funds with infrastructure to execute sophisticated arbitrage crowd out less-expert investors

A woman having coffee in front of a laptop Research Brief / E-commerce

Online Coupons Work in the Moment but Don’t Seem to Alter the Seller-Shopper Relationship

Studying 1 million Alibaba users, Hengchen Dai mostly confirms the transactional nature of internet retailing

Illustration of a house, cap, rings, car keys, baby crib Feature / Nudges

Behavioral Nudges Timed to Certain Days are Effective Motivator

Dates of milestones — major and minor — can spur us to action

Illustration of the word NOW Research Brief / Happiness

Happiness and Living in the Moment: Westerners Haven’t Quite Put Them Together Yet

Asians, more than Americans and Europeans, make a point of experiencing joy in the short term

A laptop with Netflix Research Brief / E-commerce

Streaming Choices: Do We Follow the Big Crowd or Our Friends?

The ubiquitous community-wide customer rating is the biggest pull in helping us pick a movie or show

Two people watching a Progressive Insurance ad on TV Research Brief / Advertising

The Limited Payoff in Auto Insurance Advertising

Ads aimed at brand awareness are shown to be more effective

Illustration of a man and woman pushing grocery carts with equations and clouds as a background Research Brief / Home Mortgages

Mortgage Prepayments: Factors beyond Interest Rate Movements

A model estimates the impact of economic variables on the pricing of prepayment risk

Suburban neighborhood Research Brief / Investing

Single-Family Rentals: What Drives Investor Return?

A unique data set provides fresh insights for the growing institutional investor market

A group of people on separate phone lines Research Brief / Markets

Financial Constraints on Intermediaries Cause Asset Mispricing

Real-world bond data reveals how the capital positions and liquidity of middlemen affect prices of securities they broker

Illustration of a man looking at a carrot while a magnet opens his head Research Brief / Nudges

Behavioral Economics: Are Nudges Cost-Effective?

A team of experts makes the financial case that governments should spend more on nudging

Tennis player Nick Kyrgios Research Brief / Behavioral Decision Making

In Adversity, Some High Performers Give Up Rather than Dig In

The world of tennis sheds light on a potential downside to office ranking systems

Woman with a laptop and smartphone Research Brief / Retirement Planning

Thinking Small Could Deliver Bigger Retirement Success for Gig Workers

Daily, weekly and monthly contribution schemes gauge behavior