Marketing Papers
Title
Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
3-2010
Publication Source
The Economic Journal
Volume
120
Issue
543
Start Page
270
Last Page
280
DOI
10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02296.x
Abstract
Does current utility bias predictions of future utility for high stakes decisions? Here I provide field evidence consistent with such Projection Bias in one of life's most thought‐about decisions: college enrolment. After arguing and documenting with survey evidence that cloudiness increases the appeal of academic activities, I analyse the enrolment decisions of 1,284 prospective students who visited a university known for its academic strengths and recreational weaknesses. Consistent with the notion that current weather conditions influence decisions about future academic activities, I find that an increase in cloudcover of one standard deviation on the day of the visit is associated with an increase in the probability of enrolment of 9 percentage points.
Copyright/Permission Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Simonsohn, U. Weather to Go to College. The Economic Journal 120, no. 543: pp. 270-280, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02296.x.
This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing-open-access/licensing/self-archiving.html.
Keywords
judgment, decision making, incidental emotions, priming, weather, college choice
Recommended Citation
Simonsohn, U. (2010). Weather to Go to College. The Economic Journal, 120 (543), 270-280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02296.x
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Date Posted: 15 June 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.