Walking to work today (yeah, I know it's Sunday and I'm in the office instead of out on my bike), I thought about what a fertile ground the purchase of hybrid cars could be for rational game theorists as I was trying to count the number of people using their moon roofs to the numbers who were not. I kept thinking about how much of a waste a lot of car accessories are for people who don't actually use them. I also stopped by a convenience store to buy a megamillions lottery ticket, and thought about how irrational the purchase is in the whole scheme of things. I probably had a much better chance of getting hit by a car on my walk to the store than I do winning the jackpot. Still, with a 1 in 39.8 chance of winning something, a megamillions ticket is worth something like $.60, so one's really only "throwing away" 40 cents.

The kind of game theory-esque calculations involving the choice to buy a hybrid have been discussed on in this forum since its creation. I'm wondering if anyone has seen any scholarly articles on it anywhere? I'm not talking about some newspaper or magazine article telling me that I'm irrational for spending a premium on a car I won't recoup for 5 years or whatever, I'm talking about a more substantive piece of work.