tailieunhanh - Mental Accounting Matters: Journal of Behavioral Decision Making J. Behav. Dec. Making, 12: 183~206 (1999)

All of this highlights the desirability of a framework that will identify priorities for improved environmental accounting. This paper derives such a framework by exploring the determinants of the value of information in a corporate decision-making context. The paper proceeds as follows. The next section defines environmental accounting and the meaning of "improved" information, and discusses the costs associated with those improvements. Section 3 describes the economic value of information in general terms. Section 4 applies the value of information framework to a model of production process decision-making and Section 5 discusses applications in the capital budgeting context. Section 6. | Journal of Behavioral Decision Making J. Behav. Dec. Making 12 183 206 1999 Mental Accounting Matters RICHARD H. THALER Graduate School of Business University of Chicago USA ABSTRACT Mental accounting is the set of cognitive operations used by individuals and households to organize evaluate and keep track of financial activities. Making use of research on this topic over the past decade this paper summarizes the current state of our knowledge about how people engage in mental accounting activities. Three components of mental accounting receive the most attention. This first captures how outcomes are perceived and experienced and how decisions are made and subsequently evaluated. The accounting system provides the inputs to be both ex ante and ex post cost-benefit analyses. A second component of mental accounting involves the assignment of activities to specific accounts. Both the sources and uses of funds are labeled in real as well as in mental accounting systems. Expenditures are grouped into categories housing food etc. and spending is sometimes constrained by implicit or explicit budgets. The third component of mental accounting concerns the frequency with which accounts are evaluated and choice bracketing . Accounts can be balanced daily weekly yearly and so on and can be defined narrowly or broadly. Each of the components of mental accounting violates the economic principle of fungibility. As a result mental accounting influences choice that is it matters. Copyright 1999 John Wiley Sons Ltd. KEY WORDS mental accounting choice bracketing fungibility budgeting A former colleague of mine a professor of finance prides himself on being a thoroughly rational man. Long ago he adopted a clever strategy to deal with life s misfortunes. At the beginning of each year he establishes a target donation to the local United Way charity. Then if anything untoward happens to him during the year for example an undeserved speeding ticket he simply deducts this loss from the .