The effect of language on economic behavior: Examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab

Josie I. Chen, Tai-Sen He and Yohanes Riyanto

European Economic Review, 2019, vol. 120, issue C

Abstract: Since Chen (2013), a fast-growing body of literature has documented abundant supporting evidence for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Despite this influx of research, direct causal evidence is limited. In this study, we take advantage of a unique linguistic feature of the Chinese language: speakers can freely choose whether or not to use the future tense when referring to a future event. This flexibility allows us to unobtrusively manipulate the use of “will” in the description of the rewards in a standard time preference task to cleanly examine its effect on intertemporal decisions. However, our results do not lend further empirical support for the linguistic-savings hypothesis.

Keywords: Time preference; Future tense; Languages; Linguistic-savings hypothesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D15 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:120:y:2019:i:c:s001429211930159x

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.103307

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