Abstract
Time preferences drive decisions in many economic contexts. For understanding the
underlying decision process, it is key to identify what affects these preferences in different
situations. To shed light on how people make intertemporal allocation choices, we analyze
the stability of time preferences under time pressure. Conducting a laboratory study with
144 subjects using convex time budgets, we elicit time preferences with and without time
pressure in a within-subject design. We find preferences to be stable across conditions for
aggregate estimates of present-bias and utility function curvature. For standard discounting, we find subjects to be significantly less impatient under time pressure. All results hold
across specifications and different sub-samples. Individual-level analyses confirm aggregate findings.
underlying decision process, it is key to identify what affects these preferences in different
situations. To shed light on how people make intertemporal allocation choices, we analyze
the stability of time preferences under time pressure. Conducting a laboratory study with
144 subjects using convex time budgets, we elicit time preferences with and without time
pressure in a within-subject design. We find preferences to be stable across conditions for
aggregate estimates of present-bias and utility function curvature. For standard discounting, we find subjects to be significantly less impatient under time pressure. All results hold
across specifications and different sub-samples. Individual-level analyses confirm aggregate findings.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 53-70 |
| Journal | Journal of Economic Psychology |
| Volume | 60 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2017 |