Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/92721 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Discussion Paper No. 885
Publisher: 
Osaka University, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Osaka
Abstract: 
Analysis of an original nationwide Internet survey reveals that health-related behavior shows associations with three aspects of time discounting: (i) impatience, measured by the overall discount rate; (ii) present bias, measured by the degree of declining impatience in the generalized hyperbolic discount function; and (iii) the sign effect, in that future losses are discounted at a lower rate than future gains. Present-biased respondents are classified as naïve if the responses are indicative of being a time-inconsistent procrastinator, and classified as sophisticated otherwise. The health-related indicators that we examine relate to smoking, health condition, dentition status, and body habitus. We first show that a higher degree of impatience tends to worsen health-related attributes. Second, respondents with more steeply declining impatience tend to develop more unhealthy behavior and ill-health conditions, and the tendencies are likely to be stronger for naïfs than for sophisticates. Third, the sign effect, too, shows an association with health-related behavior, although the significance levels are not overly high. Consistent with these findings, the principal component of the health-related measures shows strong associations with the degrees of impatience and declining impatience.
Subjects: 
health
time preference
discount rate
hyperbolic discounting
the sign effect
the probit model
JEL: 
I1
D03
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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