This paper studies the effects of health shocks on the demand for health insurance and annuities, along with precautionary saving in a dynamic life-cycle model. I argue that when the health shock can simultaneously increase health expenses and reduce longevity, rational agents would neither fully insure their uncertain health expenses nor fully annuitize their wealth because the correlation bet...

A rational agent adopts (or changes) its desires/goals when new information becomes available or its “desires” (e.g., tasks it is supposed to carry out) change. In conventional approaches on goal generation a desire is adopted if and only if all conditions leading to its generation are satisfied. The fact that certain beliefs might be differently relevant in the process of desire/goal generatio...

While numerous studies support Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Theory (REBT), they tend to be limited by their use of correlational designs, simulated scenarios and self-report measures. This study tested a core REBT hypothesis in an experimental design using multiple physiological as well as psychological measures. Ninety patients from a medical practice were placed in a real-life stress...

The rational choice literature on religion has been noticeably silent on the nature and purpose of religious authority. I first summarize the rational choice theory of authority and offer a rational choice definition of religious authority. A primary insight is that (religious) authority exists to coordinate social action. I then argue that social coordination is a fundamental aspect of religio...

The paper analyses modelling renewal of construction objects applying methods of the game theory. Rational construction management variants are usually selected under various conditions, using the efficiency criteria. A choice of rational alternatives can be absolutely uncertain when influences of external factors are unknown. In the current paper, selecting of rational renewal variants of dere...

The equation y2 = x3 +k, for k ∈ Z, is called Mordell’s equation on account of Mordell’s long interest in it throughout his life. A natural number-theoretic task is the description of all rational and integral solutions to such an equation, either qualitatively (decide if there are finitely or infinitely many solutions in Z or Q) or quantitatively (list or otherwise conveniently describe all su...

In this paper, we will discuss the traveler’s dilemma, a problem famous for its ability to point out how theoretical results of game theory don’t always translate properly into real life applications. We explore the paradox of rational agents being outperformed by agents playing randomly and explain what is the problem with backward induction. We comment on the results obtained by [CGGH99] when...