Working Papers

"The Effect of Risk and Loss Attitudes on Effort in Information Gathering" 

I develop and experimentally test a model predicting the effects of risk and loss attitudes on cognitive effort in information gathering tasks, using eye tracking to directly observe effort in a dot counting task. The model predicts effort should be decreasing in risk aversion while the relationship between loss aversion and effort depends on the setting. Experimentally, I find no evidence that risk preference affects effort choice and evidence that loss attitudes plays a role in choosing an effort level.

"The Effects of Cognitive Constraints and Experience in Lotteries and Mirrors" with Alex Brown and Marco Palma

We experimentally separate the effects of learning and cognitive resource availability on prospect theory anomalies, finding that experience shifts risk preferences toward neutrality while cognitive load does not, with effects concentrated among subjects who fully understood the task. Additionally, we find that subjects who are confused and subjects who are not give indistinguishable responses in both mirrors and lotteries before learning.

Selected Work in Progress

"Price Freeze Options and Consumer Welfare" 

A theoretical exploration of how price freeze options, such as Farelock(United Airlines), affect consumer welfare when sellers are setting prices endogenously. These practice of offering a freeze option is common enough among airlines that it is presumed to be profitable. However, they could act as a search incentive, leading buyers to find better deals elsewhere.