Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/331352 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Discussion Paper No. 1277
Publisher: 
Osaka University, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Osaka
Abstract: 
Consumers often exhibit behavioral cycles with alternating abstinence and indulgence over time. In the framework of tempting good consumption under limited willpower, we develop a simple model of the self-control cycles. To do so, based on the empirically relevant property of self-control, we incorporate two countervailing effects that self-control behaviors have on willpower with different delays. First, exercising self-control as of restraining tempting consumption depletes willpower in the next instant, and thereby reduces mental capital available for self-control thereafter. Second, as the self-control experience is accumulated, the consumer's willpower is gradually enhanced. The resulting predator-prey type dynamics in consumers' cognitive mechanics lead to cycles in tempting good consumption. The self-control cycles occur when (i) the self-control cost reducing effect of willpower and (ii) the willpower enhancing effect of self-control are both sufficiently strong.
Subjects: 
Self-control
cycle
temptation
willpower
malleability
consumption
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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