(Forthcoming Article) - Are consumers aware of their future inertia? We run a field experiment that offers over a million readers of a European newspaper auto-renewing or auto-canceling contracts. Many consumers are inert yet most anticipate and account for their inertia: though offering auto-renewing contracts benefits the firm in the short-term, it lowers subscriptions take-up by 35% and total subscribers by 23% over 20 months. Inertia’s impact on market outcomes depends on consumers’ overall awareness of it, which is often ignored by the literature, firms, and policy makers. In our context, consumer sophistication limits the firm from exploiting their behavioral limitations.

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Researchers found that potential breast cancer-related chemical exposures may come from far more sources than previously recognized. A new study from the Silent Spring Institute has identified hundreds of chemicals in pesticide formulations that could potentially increase breast cancer risk. The list includes both active pesticide ingredients and many so-called “inert” ingredients, which generally receive less safety testing. “Our findings highlight a regulatory blind spot around so-called inert ingredients,” says lead author Dr. Jennifer Kay, a research scientist at Silent Spring. “When we think about pesticide safety, we tend to focus on the active ingredient. But people are exposed to the entire formulation, and our findings show that many of those other chemicals may also pose a risk.” Hundreds of Chemicals Identified The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, builds on earlier research that identified more than 900 chemicals that may increase breast cancer risk. Those chemicals were flagged because they caused mammary tumors in animals or altered hormones associated with breast cancer. For the new analysis, researchers compared that list with data from more than a dozen U.S. government databases. They found 485 potential breast cancer-related chemicals in pesticide formulations, including 145 currently registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection...

Three long pieces let modular arpeggios and tape echo drift at geological speed. The surfaces are soft, but never inert: tiny changes in pulse and…

A traveler was carrying five small inert cannonballs, ranging in size, that were found to have been stolen from Fort Morgan in Alabama.

(Forthcoming Article) - Are consumers aware of their future inertia? We run a field experiment that offers over a million readers of a European newspaper auto-renewing or auto-canceling contracts. Man...