Giving it now or later: altruism and discounting

Jaromír Kovářík

Working Papers. Serie AD from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie)

Abstract: We experimentally study the e¤ect of time on altruism. By postponing payments in a standard Dictator game, subjects allocate a future payment between themselves and others. Since both the payoffs of the Dictator and the Receiver are delayed until the same time, standard intertemporal utility maximization would predict that waiting time should not affect the Dictator's choice. In this respect, we observe that Dictators' decisions are not affected, as long as the time interval between the decision and payment is not large. On the other hand, for large time gaps, subjectsbecome more self-interested.

Keywords: Altruism; Discounting; Dictator game; Intertemporal choice. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D64 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2008-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://www.ivie.es/downloads/docs/wpasad/wpasad-2008-10.pdf Fisrt version / Primera version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Giving it now or later: Altruism and discounting (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2008-10

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