Doing it when others do: a strategic model of procrastination

Article


Cerrone, C. 2021. Doing it when others do: a strategic model of procrastination. Economic Inquiry. 59 (1), pp. 315-328. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12928
TypeArticle
TitleDoing it when others do: a strategic model of procrastination
AuthorsCerrone, C.
Abstract

This paper develops a strategic model of procrastination in which present‐biased agents prefer to perform an onerous task with someone else. This turns their decision of when to perform the task into a procrastination game - a dynamic coordination game between present‐biased players. The model characterizes the conditions under which interaction mitigates or exacerbates procrastination. A procrastinator matched with a worse procrastinator may perform her task earlier than she otherwise would: she wants to avoid the increased temptation that her peer's company would generate. Procrastinators can thus use bad company as a commitment device to mitigate their self‐control problem.

PublisherWiley
JournalEconomic Inquiry
ISSN0095-2583
Electronic1465-7295
Publication dates
Online29 Jul 2020
Print01 Jan 2021
Publication process dates
Deposited03 Aug 2020
Submitted26 Oct 2019
Accepted14 Jun 2020
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
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Copyright Statement

© 2020 The Authors. Economic Inquiry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Western Economic Association International.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12928
LanguageEnglish
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