Managing Mental Accounts: Payment Cards and Consumption Expenditures
利用个人意外收到新支付卡的自然实验，发现人们会暂时增加总消费支出，且不减少其他卡的使用，也不增加负债，表明消费者将支付方式视为不可替代的预算类别。
Abstract Does mental accounting matter for total consumption expenditures? We exploit a unique setting in which individuals exogenously receive a new payment card, without requesting one. Using random variation in the time of receipt, we show that individuals temporarily increase total consumption expenditure by making purchases with the new card without reducing spending on the others. We do not observe a corresponding increase in indebtedness. Total consumption expenditure rises even for the least liquidity-constrained individuals. The evidence is consistent with consumers treating methods of payment as nonfungible budget categories, as suggested by models of mental accounting and narrow bracketing.