Uphill self-control

Abstract

This paper extends the theory of temptation and self-control introduced by Gul and Pesendorfer (2001) to allow for increasing marginal costs of resisting temptation, that is, convex self-control costs. It also proves a representation theorem that admits a general class of self-control cost functions. Both models maintain the Order, Continuity, and Set Betweenness axioms but violate Independence.