Behavioral Economics and Empirical Public Policy

Hursh, Steven R.; Roma, Peter G.

doi:10.1002/jeab.7

Cited by 225 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(86 reference statements)

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“…The Experimental Tobacco Marketplace I: Substitutability as a Function of the Price of Conventional Cigarettes Amanda J. Quisenberry PhD 1 tobacco products available in a complex marketplace (eg, electronic cigarettes, chewing tobacco). An important challenge is to identify methods that would forecast the impact of regulatory change on consumption patterns and/or consumer preference.…”

Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Behavioral economics provides such methods to examine how various commodities may interact to impact the purchasing behavior of tobacco consumers. 1,2 Behavioral economics provides a means to understand the type and degree of interaction between commodities (eg, substitution, complementarity 3 ). Substitution is defined as an increase in the consumption of a product at a constant cost with the increasing price of an alternative commodity.…”

Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Experimental Tobacco Marketplace I: Substitutability as a Function of the Price of Conventional Cigarettes

Quisenberry

Koffarnus

Hatz

et al. 2015

NICTOB

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Introduction: Behavioral economic studies of nicotine product consumption have traditionally examined substitution between two products and rarely examined substitution with more products. Increasing numbers of tobacco products available for commercial sale leads to more possible cross-product interactions, indicating a need to examine substitution in more complex arrangements that closely mirror the tobacco marketplace. Methods: The experimental tobacco marketplace (ETM) is an experimental online store that displays pictures, information, and prices for several tobacco products. Smokers were endowed with an account balance based on their weekly tobacco purchases. Participants then made potentially real purchases for seven (Experiment 1) or six (Experiment 2) tobacco/nicotine products under four price conditions for conventional cigarettes while prices for other products remained constant. Smokers returned 1 week later to report tobacco/nicotine use and return unused products for a refund. Results: In Experiment 1 (n = 22), cigarette purchasing decreased as a function of price. Substitution was greatest for electronic cigarettes and cigarillos and significant for electronic cigarettes. Experiment 2 (n = 34) was a replication of Experiment 1, but with cigarillos unavailable in the ETM. In Experiment 2, cigarette purchases decreased as a function of price. Substitution was robust and significant for electronic cigarettes and Camel Snus. Conclusions: The ETM is a novel, practical assay that mimics the real-world marketplace, and functions as a simple research tool for both researchers and participants. Across the two experiments the product mix in the ETM altered which products functioned as substitutes suggesting complex interactions between purchasing and product availability. Implications: This article adds a novel method of collecting purchasing data that mimics real world purchasing to the existing literature. The ETM is a practical avenue by which to study both hypothetical and potentially real purchasing.

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Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Original Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Experimental Tobacco Marketplace I: Substitutability as a Function of the Price of Conventional Cigarettes

Quisenberry

Koffarnus

Hatz

et al. 2015

NICTOB

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“…Elasticity of demand has been shown to be a characteristic of the drug itself and independent of drug dose. [9][10][11] Demand in humans is typically measured in one of two ways. The first of these consists of laboratory-based measurement where costs are operationalized as the number of behavioral responses to obtain a set amount of the commodity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Experimental Income on Demand for Potentially Real Cigarettes

Koffarnus

Wilson

Bickel

2014

Nicotine &Amp; Tobacco Research

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IntroductionEconomic demand analyses quantify the relationship between the cost of a commodity and population-level measures of consumption of that commodity. In the case of cigarettes, these analyses largely depend on abrupt fluctuations in price caused by the assessment of new taxes on cigarettes. Studies of this type have found that cigarette consumption is related to price, and that the sensitivity to price, or demand elasticity, is greatest among lower income people.1-3 Behavioral economic demand analyses are analogous to these population-level analyses, but can be used to understand the level of motivation to consume a product on either an individual or small group level, including cigarettes. 4,5 This level of analysis allows for experimental manipulations to be made on variables of interest. By quantifying how consumption decreases as costs to obtain and consume a product increase, important indices of demand are obtained. These indices can be grouped into two main measures of consumption, demand intensity and demand elasticity, which are associated with use level and dependence severity. 5-8Demand intensity is the amount of the commodity consumed when available at a very low cost approaching free, and demand elasticity quantifies the degree to which the individual is willing to increase monetary or effort-based expenditures to maintain the AbstractIntroduction: Cigarette demand, or the change in cigarette consumption as a function of price, is a measure of reinforcement that is associated with level of tobacco dependence and other clinically relevant measures, but the effects of experimentally controlled income on real-world cigarette consumption have not been examined. Methods:In this study, income available for cigarette purchases was manipulated to assess the effect on cigarette demand. Tobacco-dependent cigarette smokers (n = 15) who smoked 10-40 cigarettes per day completed a series of cigarette purchasing tasks under a variety of income conditions meant to mimic different weekly cigarette budgets: $280, approximately $127, $70, or approximately $32 per week. Prices of $0.12, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00 per cigarette were assessed in each income condition. Participants were instructed to purchase as many cigarettes as they would like for the next week and to only consume cigarettes purchased in the context of the study. One price in 1 income condition was randomly chosen to be "real, " and the cigarettes and the excess money in the budget for that condition were given to the participant. Results: Results indicate that demand elasticity was negatively correlated with income. Demand intensity (consumption at low prices) was unrelated to income condition and remained high across incomes. Conclusions:These results indicate that the amount of income that is available for cigarette purchases has a large effect on cigarette consumption, but only at high prices.

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“…What behaviorists define as reinforcement, economists define as the value of goods (Hursh & Roma, 2013). Value or utility is one of the main building blocks of economic theory.…”

Section: The Concepts Of Reinforcement and Utilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions of Behavior Analysis to Behavioral Economics

Furrebøe

Sandaker

2017

BEHAV ANALYST

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This article discusses behavior analysis' contribution to behavioral economics. Nobel Laureate Award winner Herbert Simon described the science of economics in an evolutionary context in A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice. Without claiming any relation between the two publications, it was published two years after B.F. Skinner´s Science and Human Behavior.While popular behavioral economics continues the critique of Homo Economicus, the eagerness to prove that man is not rational carries the risk of substituting one mentalistic explanation for another. Behavior analysis may contribute to developing knowledge about behavioral economics and consumer behavior. The selectionist perspective, the generic principle of reinforcement, and single-subject research are its main contributions. The conceptual framework of behavior analysis enables investigation of the selection of functional relations between human choice behavior and its environmental contingencies. The circumstance-specific research methods of behavior analysis and the possibility to extend them into large-scale analysis provide the means to explain the psychological underpinnings of behavior. Behavior economics offers good descriptions of important phenomena, and behavior analysis contributes with the technology to explain and influence them.

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Behavioral Economics and Empirical Public Policy

Cited by 225 publications

References 69 publications

The Experimental Tobacco Marketplace I: Substitutability as a Function of the Price of Conventional Cigarettes

The Experimental Tobacco Marketplace I: Substitutability as a Function of the Price of Conventional Cigarettes

Effects of Experimental Income on Demand for Potentially Real Cigarettes

Contributions of Behavior Analysis to Behavioral Economics

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