TY - JOUR
T1 - Scarcity and cognitive function around payday
T2 - A conceptual and empirical analysis
AU - Mani, Anandi
AU - Mullainathan, Sendhil
AU - Shafir, Eldar
AU - Zhao, Jiaying
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 the Association for Consumer Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - The ongoing demands around smoothing consumption with low and sporadic income flows in contexts of scarcity entail that minor changes in cash flows can have big psychological and behavioral effects. In this article, we examine the behavioral and cognitive impact of routine periodic fluctuations in financial status of the poor around paydays. In particular, we draw a link between a range of documented behaviors and an increase in scarcity-induced cognitive load, closer to payday. Our results, along with those of others briefly reviewed, illustrate the outsized role in scarcity contexts of otherwise trivial changes in income flows and highlight the importance of carefully structured research designs in studying the myriad challenges in scarcity contexts.
AB - The ongoing demands around smoothing consumption with low and sporadic income flows in contexts of scarcity entail that minor changes in cash flows can have big psychological and behavioral effects. In this article, we examine the behavioral and cognitive impact of routine periodic fluctuations in financial status of the poor around paydays. In particular, we draw a link between a range of documented behaviors and an increase in scarcity-induced cognitive load, closer to payday. Our results, along with those of others briefly reviewed, illustrate the outsized role in scarcity contexts of otherwise trivial changes in income flows and highlight the importance of carefully structured research designs in studying the myriad challenges in scarcity contexts.
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U2 - 10.1086/709885
DO - 10.1086/709885
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090958260
VL - 5
SP - 365
EP - 376
JO - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
JF - Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
SN - 2378-1815
IS - 4
ER -