How Important Is Temptation Spending? Maybe Less than We Thought
基于马拉维农村的随机实验，研究发现更诱人的环境并未显著增加诱惑消费，且结果对定义敏感，暗示诱惑在穷人经济决策中的作用有限。
Temptation plays a key role in theoretical work on spending and saving in developing countries. The limited empirical evidence on its importance, however, suggests that cash transfers do not induce increases in temptation spending. This paper expands the evidence base by studying the effect of randomized exposure to temptation on spending decisions in rural Malawi. Consistent with the cash transfer literature, a more tempting environment does not induce significant changes in temptation spending. However, the magnitudes of both temptation spending levels and the treatment effects are somewhat sensitive to the definition of temptation spending used. This paper examines the potential factors that may be driving these null results, and suggests that future research may find a limited role for temptation in the economic decisions of the poor.