shinybeez: A Shiny app for behavioral economic easy demand and discounting

Abstract

This article introduces shinybeez, a free and open-source web application designed to streamline behavioral economic analyses of demand and discounting data. Although quantitative modeling of behavioral economic phenomena has increased in popularity and led to translational successes in clinical practice and policy, complex analyses have remained a barrier for many researchers and practitioners. The shinybeez application addresses this gap by providing an intuitive interface for conducting descriptive and inferential analyses without requiring programming expertise. The app integrates features previously scattered across multiple tools, allowing users to upload data, calculate empirical measures, identify systematic data sets, fit nonlinear models, and visualize results—all within a single platform. The shinybeez application supports various types of analysis for demand and discounting data, including indifference point data and the 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire. Built on R Shiny and leveraging existing R packages, the app ensures reproducibility and consistency with underlying analytical methods while remaining flexible for future enhancements. The advantages of shinybeez include its accessibility through web browsers or local installation, ability to handle large data sets, and customizable data visualization options. By consolidating behavioral economic tools into a user-friendly interface, shinybeez is intended to broaden the reach of these analytical techniques and facilitate their application in addressing societal issues.