Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51614 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5808
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Economists and psychologists have devised numerous instruments to measure time preferences and have generated a rich literature examining the extent to which time preferences predict important outcomes; however, we still do not know which measures work best. With the help of a large sample of non-student participants (truck driver trainees) and administrative data on outcomes, we gather four different time preference measures and test the extent to which they predict both on their own and when they are all forced to compete head-to-head. Our results suggest that the now familiar (β, δ) formulation of present bias and exponential discounting predicts best, especially when both parameters are used.
Subjects: 
time preference
impatience
discounting
present bias
field experiment
trucker
JEL: 
C93
D90
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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