2024/11/18 by Conrad Kosowsky, Kosowsky, Conrad · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Psychology · #FOS: Economics and business #Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies #Theoretical Economics (econ.TH) #econ.TH
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.11828
openalex publication_date 2024/11/18 · arxiv published 2024/11/18 · arxiv updated 2025/09/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I model a rational agent who experiences endogenous deadline pressure in the face of a fixed future deadline. The agent holds a resource stock, and opportunities to spend resources arise randomly according to a Poisson process. When the deadline is far away, the agent smooths consumption, but as the deadline approaches, the agent prioritizes current spending because of uncertainty about the future. The combination of concave utility and the agent's liquidity induces correlation aversion. Connecting the agent's risk and time preference is intuitive and leads to a model of procrastination where the agent overestimates their desire to spend resources.