Do Consumers Exploit Commitment Opportunities? Evidence from Natural Experiments Involving Liquor Consumption
通过分析周日酒类销售时间延长政策的影响，发现消费者会增加店内饮酒消费，但不会增加外带酒类消费，表明消费者并未广泛使用通过控制可得性来调节饮酒的承诺策略。
This paper provides evidence concerning the extent to which consumers of liquor employ commitment devices. One widely recommended commitment strategy is to regulate alcohol consumption by deliberately manipulating availability. The paper assesses the prevalence of the “availability strategy” by evaluating the effects of policies that would influence its effectiveness—specifically, changes in allowable Sunday sales hours. It finds that consumers increase their liquor consumption in response to extended Sunday on-premises sales hours, but not in response to extended off-premises sales hours. The latter finding is inconsistent with widespread use of the availability strategy.