Commitments and weak resolve

Agents can use commitments and self-control to achieve their normative objectives and avoid spontaneous temptations. However, due to weak resolve they may also forgo commitment opportunities and succumb to temptations later. Anticipating such failures, agents may use strategies such as promises and deadlines to help themselves make proper commitments later. We identify such behaviors via a threeperiod extension of Gul and Pesendorfer’s (2001) model. Our main utility representation portrays an agent who is confident ex ante about her normative goals, but her resolve wavers at the interim stage leading her to relax these goals towards future temptations and possibly other directions. All components of our representations are derived in an essentially unique way from axioms imposed on choice behavior.