Editor's Choice Working over Time: Dynamic Inconsistency in Real Effort Tasks

Ned Augenblick, Muriel Niederle (niederle@stanford.edu) and Charles Sprenger

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2015, vol. 130, issue 3, 1067-1115

Abstract: Experimental tests of dynamically inconsistent time preferences have largely relied on choices over time-dated monetary rewards. Several recent studies have failed to find the standard patterns of present bias. However, such monetary studies contain often-discussed confounds. In this article, we sidestep these confounds and investigate choices over consumption (real effort) in a longitudinal experiment. We pair this effort study with a companion monetary discounting study. We confirm very limited time inconsistency in monetary choices. However, subjects show considerably more present bias in effort. Furthermore, present bias in the allocation of work has predictive power for demand of a meaningfully binding commitment device. Therefore our findings validate a key implication of models of dynamic inconsistency, with corresponding policy implications. JEL Codes: C91, D12, D81.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (275)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/qje/qjv020 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:130:y:2015:i:3:p:1067-1115.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva

More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from President and Fellows of Harvard College
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press (joanna.bergh@oup.com).