Beneficial and Harmful Addictions: Two sides of the same coin

Lecturas de Economía

关键词: addiction;    self-control;    negative internalities;    habit formation;    hyperbolic discounting;    naïveté;   

DOI  :  10.17533/udea.le.n84a01

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In this paper we obtain an isomorphism between harmful and beneficial addictions in a discrete-time binary choice context. The equivalence thus established allows us to study both phenomena (harmful and beneficial addictions) as two sides of the same coin. Besides the theoretical insight it provides, this dualism is also particularly useful because it readily allows for the translation of the results obtained in the domain of harmful addictions to the domain of beneficial addictions. Once the dualism is established, we analyze addictions under both timeconsistent and time-inconsistent preferences.

【 授权许可】

Unknown