You will receive your money next week! Experimental evidence on the role of Future-Time Reference for intertemporal decision-making

Niklas Ziemann ()
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Niklas Ziemann: University of Potsdam

No 56, CEPA Discussion Papers from Center for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: Against the background of the increasingly discussed “Linguistic Saving Hypothesis” (Chen, 2013), I studied whether the targeted use of a present tense (close tense) and a future tense (distant tense) within the same language have an impact on intertemporal decision-making. In a monetarily incentivized laboratory experiment in Germany, I implemented two different treatments on intertemporal choices. The treatments differed in the tense in which I referred to future rewards. My results show that individuals prefer to a greater extent rewards which are associated with a present tense (close tense). This result is in line with my prediction and the first empirical support for the Linguistic Saving Hypothesis within one language. However, this result holds exclusively for males. Females seem to be unaffected by the linguistic manipulation. I discuss my findings in the context of “gender-as-culture” as well as their potential policy-implications.

Keywords: Experiment; Intertemporal Choice; Language; Linguistic Saving Hypothesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D15 D90 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pot:cepadp:56

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