• Media type: Report; E-Book
  • Title: Overcoming Time Inconsistency with a Matched Bet: Theory and Evidence from Exercising
  • Contributor: Woerner, Andrej [Author]
  • Published: München und Berlin: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, 2023
  • Language: English
  • Keywords: monetary incentives ; D90 ; I12 ; D47 ; health behavior ; market design ; C93 ; field experiment
  • Origination:
  • Footnote: Diese Datenquelle enthält auch Bestandsnachweise, die nicht zu einem Volltext führen.
  • Description: This paper introduces the matched-bet mechanism. The matched bet is an easily applicable and strictly budget-balanced mechanism that aims to help people overcome time-inconsistent behavior. I show theoretically that offering a matched bet helps both sophisticated and naive procrastinators to reduce time-inconsistent behavior. A field experiment on exercising confirms the theoretical predictions: offering a matched bet has a significant positive effect on gym attendance. Self-reported procrastinators are significantly more likely to take up the matched bet. Overall, the matched bet proves a promising device to help people not to procrastinate.
  • Access State: Open Access