Temporal Stability of Time Preferences
- Creators
- Meier, Stephan
- Sprenger, Charles D.
Abstract
The preferences assumed to govern intertemporal trade-offs are generally considered to be stable economic primitives, though evidence on this stability is notably lacking. We present evidence from a large field study conducted over two years, with around 1,400 individuals using incentivized intertemporal choice experiments. Aggregate choice profiles and corresponding estimates of discount parameters are unchanged over the two years and individual correlations through time are high by existing standards. However, some individuals show signs of instability. By linking experimental measures to administrative tax records, we showthat identified instability is uncorrelated with both levels and changes in sociodemographic variables.
Additional Information
© 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Received for publication August 23, 2010. Revision accepted for publication November 26, 2013. Posted Online April 23, 2015. Editor: Philippe Aghion. We are grateful to Nageeb Ali, James Andreoni, Richard Carson, Julie Cullen, Lorenz Goette, Yoram Halevy, Glenn Harrison, Muriel Niederle, Lise Vesterlund, Michelle White, and Chris Wignall; seminar and conference participants at Cornell University, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Santa Barbara, the North America ESA Meeting 2009, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Stanford University, and University of Pittsburgh for helpful comments and discussions; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for financial assistance. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Benjamin Levinger provided excellent research assistance. Special thanks to Marques Benton (Department of Public and Community Affairs, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) for all his help.Attached Files
Published - Meier_temporal_stability.pdf
Supplemental Material - REST_a_00433-esupp.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 104572
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200724-131122746
- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Created
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2020-07-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field