Perspectives on mental accounting: An exploration of budgeting and investing

2018/03/01 by C. Yiwei Zhang, Abigail B. Sussman · 1 citation
Decision Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Psychology · Engineering · #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance #Financial Markets and Investment Strategies #Categorization #Context (archaeology) #Accounting #Mental accounting #Process (computing) #Work (physics) #Investment (military) #Business #Psychology #Political science #Finance #Computer science #Engineering #Geography #Politics

paper · doi:10.1002/cfp2.1011

openalex publication_date 2018/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

This article provides an overview of recent advances in the literature on mental accounting within the context of consumer financial decision‐making. We first discuss the categorization process that underlies mental accounting and the methods people use to categorize funds. We then highlight some of the notable work that examines how mental accounting influences budgeting, spending, and investment decisions. The article concludes by proposing an agenda for future research, focusing on current gaps in our knowledge and promising areas to explore.

Citations

• Anomalies: Saving, Fungibility, and Mental Accounts
• Mental accounting and categorization
• Malleable Mental Accounting: The Effect of Flexibility on the Justification of Attractive Spending and Consumption Decisions
• The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt
• THE BEHAVIORAL LIFE‐CYCLE HYPOTHESIS
• Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice
• Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk
• Tightwads and Spendthrifts

Cited by

• Mental accounting [wikipedia]

Related

• Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice
• Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice
• Observable Consequences of Mental Accounting
• An assessment of the effects of mental accounting on overspending behaviour: An empirical study
• Revisiting mental accounting classic paradigms: Replication Registered Report of the problems reviewed in Thaler (1999)