Time for memorable consumption

Abstract

A consumption event is memorable if the memory of the event affects well-being at times after the material consumption, as originally introduced by Gilboa et al. (2016). Our main contribution is to develop an axiomatic foundation of memorable consumption in a dynamic setting. Preferences are represented by the present value of the sum of utilities derived at each date from the current consumption and from recollecting the past. Our model accommodates well-known phenomena in psychology, such as the peak-end rule, duration neglect, and adaptation trends. We also provide foundations for a prominent special case of the representation with the Markovian property. The model is illustrated with applications in two different contexts: risk-taking behavior in a principal-agent problem and life-cycle consumption-savings decisions.