Intertemporal Altruism

Felix Chopra, Philipp Eisenhauer (), Armin Falk and Thomas W Graeber ()
Additional contact information
Philipp Eisenhauer: University of Bonn
Thomas W Graeber: Harvard Business School

No 14059, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Standard consumption utility is linked in time to a consumption event, whereas the timing of prosocial utility flows is ambiguous. Prosocial utility may depend on the actual utility consequences for others -- it is consequence-dated -- or it may be related to the act of giving and is thus choice-dated. Even though most prosocial decisions involve intertemporal trade-offs, existing models of other-regarding preferences abstract from the time signature of utility flows, limiting their explanatory scope. Building on a canonical intertemporal choice framework, we characterize the behavioral implications of the time structure of prosocial utility. We conduct a high-stakes donation experiment that allows us to identify non-parametrically and calibrate structurally the different motives from their unique time profiles. We find that the universe of our choice data can only be explained by a combination of choice- and consequence-dated prosocial utility. Both motives are pervasive and negatively correlated at the individual level.

Keywords: altruism; intertemporal decision-making; donation; time inconsistency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D12 D64 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 89 pages
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hpe, nep-soc and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Intertemporal Altruism (2024)
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