Estimating Time Preferences from Convex Budgets

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2012
Volume: 102
Issue: 7
Pages: 3333-56

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Experimentally elicited discount rates are frequently higher than what seems reasonable for economic decision-making. Such high rates are often attributed to present-biased discounting. A well-known bias of standard measurements is the assumption of linear consumption utility. Attempting to correct this bias using measures of risk aversion to identify concavity, researchers find reasonable discounting but at the cost of exceptionally high utility function curvature. We present a new methodology for identifying time preferences, both discounting and curvature, from simple allocation decisions. We find reasonable levels of both discounting and curvature and, surprisingly, dynamically consistent time preferences. (JEL C91, D12, D81)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:102:y:2012:i:7:p:3333-56
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24