The Allocation of Time in Decision-Making

Christopher F. Chabris, David Laibson, Carrie L. Morris, Jonathon P. Schuldt and Dmitry Taubinsky

Journal of the European Economic Association, 2009, vol. 7, issue 2-3, 628-637

Abstract: We study the allocation of time across decision problems. If a decision-maker (1) has noisy estimates of value, (2) improves those estimates the longer she analyzes a choice problem, and (3) allocates time optimally, then the decision-maker should spend less time choosing when the value gap between two options is relatively large. To test this prediction we asked subjects to make 27 binary incentive-compatible intertemporal choices, and measure response time for each decision. Our time allocation model explains 54% of the variance in average decision time. These results support the view that decision-making is a cognitively costly activity that uses time as an input allocated according to cost-benefit principles. (JEL: C0, D01, D03, D87, D9) (c) 2009 by the European Economic Association.

JEL-codes: C0 D01 D03 D87 D9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

Downloads: (external link)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1542-4774/issues link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Allocation of Time in Decision-Making (2009)
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:tpr:jeurec:v:7:y:2009:i:2-3:p:628-637

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the European Economic Association is currently edited by Xavier Vives, George-Marios Angeletos, Orazio P. Attanasio, Fabio Canova and Roberto Perotti

More articles in Journal of the European Economic Association from MIT Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The MIT Press ().