How, not just how much, consumers earn matters. Beyond income level, income can vary along three key dimensions: timing (when it is received), structure (how it is earned), and source (where it comes from). While much research has focused on income level, my work investigates how these fundamental features of income, such as higher versus lower payment frequency, hourly versus salaried compensation, and wages versus government benefits, influence how people mentally represent and evaluate their resources. These judgments affect important financial decisions, including whether to seek out additional resources and how to allocate those resources. My research is organized into two interconnected research streams:
1. The first investigates how the timing, structure, and source of income shape consumers’ resource-seeking behaviors. For example, what drives preferences for lump sums versus distributed income streams? How does framing tax benefits in these terms affect interest in claiming them? How does the congruence between consumers’ earning structure and the income-reporting questions on benefit applications influence whether and how people report income?
2. The second research stream examines how these same income features influence resource-spending behaviors. For instance, how does income volatility shape how consumers evaluate their income and, consequently, their spending? How does payment frequency influence budgeting, and how does the budget structure contribute to overspending? Figure 1 details my holistic conceptual model.
Three hallmarks consistently define my research: it sits at the intersection of psychology and economics, field and lab, and theory and practice. My work extends prevailing theories by identifying income features as important moderators for how people actually behave. I employ a multi-method approach, which includes large-scale field experiments, analyses of administrative and financial datasets, as well as controlled, randomized lab and online experiments. A significant portion of my research is conducted in collaboration with nonprofits and industry partners, which helps ensure it is scientifically rigorous, practically relevant, and scalable. My research interests are fueled by my lived experience growing up in a lower-income household.
Wendy De La Rosa, Jackie Silverman, Abigail Sussman, Vince Dorie^, Gwen Rino^, Maximilian Hell^, Eric Giannella^, and Lisa Dillman^(2025), “Using Expenditure Reframes to Increase Interest in Claiming Government Benefits,” Journal of Marketing
[ Link ] [ Data, Materials, and Preregistrations ]
Wendy De La Rosa and Christopher J. Bechler (2024) “Unveiling the Adverse Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Financial Decisions Via the AI-IMPACT Model,” Current Opinion in Psychology
Wendy De La Rosa, Abigail B. Sussman, Eric Giannella^, and Maximilian Hell^ (2022), “Communicating Amounts in Terms of Commonly Used Budgeting Periods Increases Intentions to Claim Government Benefits,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Wendy De La Rosa and Stephanie M. Tully (2022), “The Impact of Payment Frequency on Consumer Spending and Subjective Wealth Perceptions,” Journal of Consumer Research
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Wendy De La Rosa*, Eesha Sharma*, Stephanie M. Tully*, Eric Giannella^, and Gwen Rino^ (2021), “Psychological Ownership Interventions Increase Interest in Claiming Government Benefits,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Wendy De La Rosa, Christopher J. Bechler, Hal E. Hershfield, Gwen Rino^, Ryan Hatch^, Chris Chan^, and Eric Giannella^, “Improving Income Elicitation to Increase Income Reporting: Evidence from Two Large-Scale Field Experiments Among Benefit Applicants,” revise and resubmit at Management Science
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Ekaterina Goncharova (PhD Student) and Wendy De La Rosa, “The Impact of Income Volatility on Subjective Wealth and Financial Decisions,” revise and resubmit at Journal of Marketing Research
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Ekaterina Goncharova (PhD Student), Rohan Garg (PhD Student), and Wendy De La Rosa, “From Stigma to Support: How Others’ Income Volatility Elicits Prosocial Attitudes and Behaviors” under review at Journal of Consumer Research
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Alicia Johnson*, Wendy De La Rosa*, Anastasiya Gosh, and Bikram Gosh, “More Paychecks, Less Planning: How Payment Frequency Influences Budgeting” under review at Journal of Consumer Psychology
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Wendy De La Rosa, Ron Berman, Christophe Van den Bulte, Anya Shchetkina, Nidhi Agrawal, Adam L. Alter, Christopher J. Bechler, Jonathan E. Bogard, J. Anthony Cookson, Kylie Davis, Ayelet Fishbach, Craig R. Fox, Ayelet Gneezy, Hal E. Hershfield, Tatiana Homonoff, Aziza C. Jones, Lena Kim, John G. Lynch, Tamutswa Mahari, Erick M. Mas, Eesha Sharma, Jackie Silverman, Abigail B. Sussman, Patricia Torres, Stephanie M. Tully, Broderick L. Turner, Jr., Esther Uduehi, Oleg Urminsky, Adrian F. Ward, Vince Dorie^, Gwen Rino^, Maximilian Hell^, and Eric Giannella^, “Increasing Interest in Claiming a Tax Credit Among Lower-Income People: Evidence from Two Large-Scale A/B/n Field Experiments,” reject and resubmit at Marketing Science
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Wendy De La Rosa and Abigail B. Sussman, “The Frequency-Cost Matrix (FCM): A New Paradigm for Financial Decision-Making,” reject and resubmit at Journal of Marketing
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Yin, Siyuan (PhD Student) and Wendy De La Rosa, “The Impact of (Dis)Aggregated Budgeting on Consumer Spending”
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Lorenzo Cecutti (PhD Student)*, Wendy De La Rosa*, and Aaron Barnes*, “Friend or Financier? The Cost of Closeness in Financial Relationships”
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Austin S. Kilaru, Aliza Haider, Joseph Harrison, Erica L. Dixon, Lauren Southwick, Charles Rareshide, Melissa Berkowitz, Conor Carroll, Clayton Kaledin, Grace McDermott, Michael Mehta, Alisa Stephens-Shields, Wendy De La Rosa, Anish K. Agarwal, and Raina M. Merchant, “Linkage of Emergency Department Patients with Public Benefits Navigators via Automated Text Messaging: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” under review at Annals of Internal Medicine
Katherine A. Mason, Kayley Okst, Donald P. Green, Robb Willer, Jan G. Voelkel, Yash Patel, Claire Robertson, Wooyoung Choi, Danielle Goldwert, Todd Rogers, Erika Weisz, James N. Druckman, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Hannah J. Birnbaum, Jonathan E. Bogard, Craig I. Brimhall, Danielle Cosme, Wendy De La Rosa, Andrea G. Dittmann, Emily Falk, Craig R. Fox, Rohan Garg (PhD Student), Noah J. Goldstein, Ekaterina Y. Goncharova (PhD Student), John T. Jost, Eric D. Knowles, Noah M. Laskey, Spike W. S. Lee, Jackson G. Lu, Vincent Pons, Aneesh Rai, Joseph S. Reiff, Hannah B. Waldfogel, Megan E. Weber, Sara M. Constantino, and Madalina Vlasceanu, “A Tournament of Behavioral Interventions to Increase Voter Registration Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election”
Wendy De La Rosa, Broderick L. Turner Jr., Jennifer Aaker, and Prashant Mishra, “Intraweek Payday Timing and Consumer Spending”
[ Data, Materials, and Preregistrations ]
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