How predictable : patterns of human economic behavior in the wild

Shopping is driven by needs (to eat, to socialize, to work), but it is also a driver of where we go. I examine the transaction records of 80 million customers and find that while our economic choices predict mobility patterns overall, at the small scale we transact unpredictably. In particular, we bundle together multiple store visits, and interleave the order in which we frequent those stores. Individual predictability also varies with income level. I end with a description of how merchant composition emerges in US cities, as seen through the lens of credit card swipes.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Krumme, Katherine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alex (Sandy) Pentland.

• Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62118

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62118