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.

Illustration of a young man looking into a mirror, reflecting his older self Feature / Time

The Healthy Upside of Thinking about an Older You

Consciously imagining our older self can spur us to take better care of ourselves now

A group of people climbing a mountain peak Research Brief / Behavioral Economics

Why Kickstarter Funders Quickly Kick in the Last 5 Percent

Research shows that people have a sincere desire to see projects take flight

City landscape at dusk Research Brief / Housing

Could Costly Housing Bring Down Superstar Cities?

Stuart Gabriel’s research shows how a vibrant economic hub loses essential residents

Suburban neighborhood under construction Research Brief / Real Estate

Quantitative Easing Kept the Foreclosure Crisis from Being Even Worse

The Fed’s gambit didn’t trigger a home-price recovery, but research shows it reduced subprime foreclosure risk

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