This dissertation is a study of non-standard economic behavior. The first chapter concerns two widely observed violations of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, the Compromise and Attraction effects. I construct a novel method of representing them by reducing the context of a menu to a frame, encompassing the worst option along each attribute in the menu, and observing a collection of preferences indexed by frames. The agent behaves as though a good’s attractiveness along each attribute is judged relative to the frame with declining marginal utility. This allows me to give a novel interpretation of the compromise and attraction effects: they are consistent with indifference curves rotating clockwise as the frame moves down, and counter- clockwise as it goes left. It also allows me to give a representation theorem showing the behavioral axioms associated with a utility representation taking a good and the frame as arguments. The second chapter applies the representation from Chapter One to electoral politics. It shows that incorporating these preferences generates equilibria where extremist candidates enter plurality elections in order to attractively frame their preferred moderate candidate, even if the extremists have probability zero of obtaining office themselves. While such candidates are frequently observed in elections, and there are papers generating equilibria with centrist sure losers (including Solow (2015)), this is the first paper generating equilibria with these extremist candidates without unusual assumptions on election rules, or non single-peaked preferences. This paper creates a four candidate equilibrium with two extremist sure loser candidates, each on the fringes of opinion. The third chapter concerns the effect of guilt on preferences in the circumstance of gift giving. A decision maker who experiences guilt may receive an increase in surplus from a gift card allowing guilt-free indulgence, potentially beyond even the surplus she’d receive from an equivalent cash gift. This paper isolates the behavior of guilt avoidance by exploiting a multi-period setting which incorporates a distinction between the decision maker’s preferences over what she’d receive, and what she would choose. A representation inspired by Kopylov (2009) is adapted to this setting, providing a representation theorem for these preferences.

The most commonly cited reason for dropping-out of a college program is financial issues (Johnson, Rochkind, Ott, & DuPont, 2009). While some financial issues may be related to access to financial resources, others may be related to how college students respond to financial stress. Boss’ (2002) model of family stress (Figure 1) noted the ability to cope with a crisis is influenced by available resources and perception of an event. This framework suggests the amount of financial distress perceived by young adults is influenced by available resources (e.g., parental support or financial knowledge), and internal (psychological) factors, such as self-esteem and locus of control (Boss, 2002). It is hypothesized that perceived financial well-being (perceived outlook of their financial situation), the level of control students have (e.g., locus of control) and how they perceive themselves (e.g., self-esteem) will influence perceived financial distress (ability to manage finances and education), above and beyond, and financial knowledge. To conduct the analysis, a convenience sample of 612 undergraduate college students from a Southeastern University were surveyed to determine whether their financial knowledge (i.e. credit and debit, savings, taxes, and insurance knowledge), perceived financial well-being, self-esteem and locus of control had an effect on financial distress. The results of a multiple linear regression revealed respondents’ well-being (β = .61, p < .01) and locus of control (β = .18, p < .01) are significant indicators of financial distress among college students. Specifically, for every one point increase in financial well-being, financial stress decreases by .69 points (b = -0.69, p < .01) and for every one point increase in locus of control (suggesting an increase in external locus of control), financial stress increases by .21 points (b = 0.21, p < .01). Furthermore, financial knowledge and self-esteem was not significantly related to financial stress among college students (β = -0.04, p = .11, and β = -0.10, p = .02 respectively). As such, college student’s financial distress is lower when students possess a positive outlook on their financial well-being, have an internal locus of control, and have high self-esteem. Financial knowledge had less influence on financial distress, but this finding may be a product of the level of financial knowledge among college students.

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with choice allocations are suggested as possible alternatives to melioration.

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The Backward Induction strategy for the Centipede Game leads us to a counterfactual reasoning paradox, The Centipede Game paradox. The counterfactual reasoning proving the backward induction strategy for the game appears to rely on the players in the game not choosing that very same backward induction strategy. The paradox is a general paradox that applies to backward induction reasoning in sequential, perfect information games. Therefore, the paradox is not only problematic for the Centipede Game, but it also affects counterfactual reasoning solutions in games similar to the Centipede Game. The Centipede Game is a prime illustration of this paradox in counterfactual reasoning. As a result, this paper will use a material versus subjunctive/counterfactual conditional analysis to provide a theoretical resolution to the Centipede Game, with the hope that a similar solution can be applied to other areas where this paradox may appear. The solution involves delineating between the epistemic systems of the players and the game theorists.

Historically, merger and acquisition (or M&A) activity has occurred in cyclical patterns, forming what are known as “merger waves.” To date, there have been a total of seven waves. Though it is widely acknowledged that merger waves exist, there is no consensus on what drives these waves. Through both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this paper aims to determine the causes of merger waves and looks at those causes through two different lenses: the neoclassical view, which states that economic shocks cause merger waves, and the behavioral view, which states that increases in merger activity are due to managerial behavior and decisions. By analyzing the economic, political, and technological landscapes as well as valuation and interest rate data during periods of intense merger activity, I conclude that neoclassical theories are stronger in explaining the first three waves, whereas behavioral theories are stronger in explaining the last three waves.

The purpose of this study is to present a descriptive analysis of the active participants in a voluntary association concerned with community development. This analysis will focus upon description and discussion of the socio-demographic characteristics of the active members of the organization. Some of the attitudinal factors which operated to motivate and sustain participation in the organization will also be examined. Before proceeding with discussion of the theoretical background for the study, the community and its history relative to development of the organization will be described.

ELABORATIONS ON MULTIATTRIBUTE UTILITY THEORY DOMINANCE By David L. Vairo A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2019. Major Director: Dissertation director’s name, Dr. Jason Merrick, Supply Chain Management and Analytics Multiattribute Utility Theory (MAUT) is used to structure decisions with more than one factor (attribute) in play. These decisions become complex when the attributes are dependent on one another. Where linear modeling is concerned with how factors are directly related or correlated with each other, MAUT is concerned with how a decision maker feels about the attributes. This means that direct elicitation of value or utility functions is required. This dissertation focuses on expanding the types of dominance forms used within MAUT. These forms reduce the direct elicitation needed to help structure decisions. Out of this work comes support for current criticisms of gain/loss separability that is assumed as part of Prospect Theory. As such, an alternative to Prospect Theory is presented, derived from within MAUT, by modeling the probability an event occurs as an attribute.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> A warrant is a derivative that is normally issued over stocks. During the last financial crisis, the trading of warrants reached new records. The high leverage and the complexity of the product make the warrant a risky investment. Financial products such as warrants therefore imply a significant purchase decision for an individual and the consequences of making a poorly thought-out choice can be of considerable importance. Financial products require a high degree of involvement since the decision process is characterized by uncertainty of outcome and complexity of the product. Traditional theories on consumer decision making build on the assumptions of self-interest and rationality. In the context of financial services, the rationality of the decision process has been questioned within the field of behavioral economics, a field that suggests that the consumer is unable to make rational decisions as well as comparative judgments.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>With a theoretical basis in the traditional consumer decision process, the purpose of this thesis is to examine and describe the decision making of young investors that buy warrants.</p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong> The study can be described as abdicative, since the subject of this thesis is based on an empirical problem observed in reality as well as based on existing theories on the subject. The thesis is furthermore a mixed qualitative and quantitative study. The empirical information was gathered using an Internet survey that was sent out to young investors that are members or are connected to financial associations or societies at different universities.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> The study is considered to show that the decision making of young investors can be described as neither optimal nor rational when buying warrants. The respondents seldom seem to make efficient and as rational decisions as the traditional decision process model implies. Instead, individual characteristics and attitudes of the young investors affect their decision making.</p>

<p>Never before has the interest for charity been greater. At this writing, U.S. charities have collected nearly one billion U.S. dollars (!) only in the aid for the disaster victims in Haiti.But can you get people to give even more? Are there yet unexplored market in which charitable organizations still have growth potential? Traditional economic theory which is based in individuals' rational behavior and self-utility maximization has a hard time to explain the phenomenon of charitable donations. But relatively new research can possibly connect the theory and the phenomenon through the theorem of warm-glow in why people actually donate money anonymously and indirectly to people they never met or will ever know who made the donation. This thesis will examine whether or not a small change in the environment could influence individuals to donate more money and / or more frequently. The study was conducted as a field experiment at an ICA store deposit station where people are faced with the choice to donate their deposit to the Swedish Red Cross instead of getting a voucher for themselves. The obtained results shows a statistically significant difference between the donation of the pledge of over 13 percentage more in the presence of a visual stimulus, more specifically a picture of a poor boy drinking clean water from a tap. That results in a doubling in nominal amounts of donations for the charity. Moreover, I find that people who already before the experiment are sympathetic to donating the pledge do so to a greater extent than people who were not. Neither sex nor age seemed to affect the results in any way.</p>