Recent Developments in the Experimental Elicitation of Time Preference

Stephen Cheung

No 9898, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This methodological survey reviews recent developments in the design of experiments to elicit individuals' time preferences, with a focus on the measurement or control for potentially non-linear utility. While the objective of a time preference experiment is usually to estimate parameters of a discount function, assumptions concerning the nature of utility may have an important influence upon these estimates. The survey classifies experiment designs on two dimensions: whether they assume an equivalence between utility under risk and over time, and whether they result in an estimate of the curvature of utility.

Keywords: time preference; choice list; instantaneous utility; discounted utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published - published in: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 2016, 11, 1-8

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Journal Article: Recent developments in the experimental elicitation of time preference (2016)
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