On Measuring Time Preferences

Abstract Differences in patience across language groups have recently received increased attention in the literature. We provide evidence on this issue by measuring time preferences of French and German speakers from a bilingual municipality in Switzerland where institutions are shared and socioeconomic conditions are very similar across the two language groups. We find that French speakers are significantly more impatient than German speakers, and differences are particularly pronounced when payments in the present are involved. Estimates of preference parameters of a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model suggest significant differences in both present bias (β) and the long-run discount factor (δ) across language groups.

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Time Preferences for Health

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.013.87 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marjon van der Pol ◽

Alastair Irvine

Keyword(s):

Time Preference ◽

Time Preferences ◽

Measuring Time ◽

Health Domain ◽

Individual Health ◽

Elicitation Methods

The interest in eliciting time preferences for health has increased rapidly since the early 1990s. It has two main sources: a concern over the appropriate methods for taking timing into account in economics evaluations, and a desire to obtain a better understanding of individual health and healthcare behaviors. The literature on empirical time preferences for health has developed innovative elicitation methods in response to specific challenges that are due to the special nature of health. The health domain has also shown a willingness to explore a wider range of underlying models compared to the monetary domain. Consideration of time preferences for health raises a number of questions. Are time preferences for health similar to those for money? What are the additional challenges when measuring time preferences for health? How do individuals in time preference for health experiments make decisions? Is it possible or necessary to incentivize time preference for health experiments?

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Visual convex time preferences: Lab, field and high schools

10.31234/osf.io/ex67t ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Pablo Branas-Garza ◽

Benjamin Prissé

Keyword(s):

High Schools ◽

Time Budget ◽

Time Preferences ◽

Measuring Time ◽

Price List ◽

The Future ◽

High Level

The original standard for measuring time preferences was Multiple Price List (MPL), where subjects are asked to choose between an amount of money in the present and a larger amount of money in the future. Convex Time Budget (CTB) was later introduced, allowing subjects to differentiallyallocate money between present and future. It improved precision of measurement but also increased the complexity of the task. In this paper we introduce the Visual Convex Time Preferences (VCTP), a new measure of time preferences synthesizing simplicity of MPL and precision of CTB. Results from the lab suggest that VCTP is robust and improves precision of time preferences measurement compared to the MPL. Same results are replicated in the field of Honduras, especially when the experiment is run with the help of enumerators. Experiments with teenagers show that younger population exhibit high level of inconsistency although older participants perform better.

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Visual convex time preferences: Lab, field and high schools

10.21203/rs.3.rs-519888/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pablo Branas-Garza ◽

Benjamin Prissé

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

High Schools ◽

Field Experiment ◽

Time Budget ◽

Time Preferences ◽

Lab Experiment ◽

Measuring Time ◽

Price List ◽

Task Time

Abstract We introduce the Visual Convex Time Preferences (VCTP) task, a new tool for measuring time preferences that synthesizes the simplicity of Multiple Price List (MPL) and the precision of Convex Time Budget (CTB) tasks. We evaluate VCTP in three environments: lab, field and high school. The lab experiment suggests that VCTP improves the precision of time preferences without increasing task time or decreasing subject consistency. The field experiment partially replicates the results, since subjects make little use of the additional precision. The high school experiment shows that younger populations find it difficult to perform both the MPL and the VCTP, but older teenagers use the advantage of VCTP at no cost. Overall, the results indicate that the task successfully measures time preferences but should be adapted to specific populations.

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Measuring Time Preferences

Journal of Economic Literature ◽

10.1257/jel.20191074 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 299-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jonathan Cohen ◽

Keith Marzilli Ericson ◽

David Laibson ◽

John Myles White

Keyword(s):

Predictive Power ◽

Structural Models ◽

Time Preferences ◽

Discount Function ◽

Measuring Time ◽

Rates Of Return ◽

Financial Flows ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Empirical Regularities

We review research that measures time preferences—i.e., preferences over intertemporal trade—offs. We distinguish between studies using financial flows, which we call “money earlier or later” (MEL) decisions, and studies that use time-dated consumption/effort. Under different structural models, we show how to translate what MEL experiments directly measure (required rates of return for financial flows) into a discount function over utils. We summarize empirical regularities found in MEL studies and the predictive power of those studies. We explain why MEL choices are driven in part by some factors that are distinct from underlying time preferences. (JEL C61, D15)

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