A theory of personal budgeting

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Galperti, Simone
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1555-7561
• DOI: 10.3982/TE2881
• 发表日期: 2019-01-01
• 页码: 173-210
• 关键词: Budget; minimum-savings rule; COMMITMENT; flexibility; intratemporal trade-off; uncertainty; present bias; D23; D82; D86; D91; E62; G31

摘要

Prominent research argues that consumers often use personal budgets to manage self-control problems. This paper analyzes the link between budgeting and self-control problems in consumption-saving decisions. It shows that the use of good-specific budgets depends on the combination of a demand for commitment and the demand for flexibility resulting from uncertainty about intratemporal trade-offs between goods. It explains the subtle mechanism that renders budgets useful commitments, their interaction with minimum-savings rules (another widely studied form of commitment), and how budgeting depends on the intensity of self-control problems. This theory matches several empirical findings on personal budgeting.