Eliciting time preferences

Michael A. Kuhn

Chapter 5 in Handbook of Experimental Methods in the Social Sciences, 2026, pp 212-251 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: I review techniques for estimating time preferences in the economic literature with a focus on the two most popular approaches: the Multiple Price List and the Convex Time Budget. While the techniques differ in some key elements, they are closely related, can be made to work together, and they reflect a shared economic perspective on what constitutes time preference. I discuss how the research goal and features of the subject population should influence the design of elicitations, leading to bespoke elicitation details for each researcher's purpose, while maintaining a meta-experimental structure that is common and comparable across implementations. I also try to address common questions about time preference elicitation studies from both new and repeat users.

Keywords: Discounting; Time Preference; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035312627
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