Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/228857 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
ECONtribute Discussion Paper No. 054
Publisher: 
University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI), Bonn and Cologne
Abstract: 
Many important intertemporal decisions are made by groups rather than individuals. What happens to collective decisions when there is internal conflict about the tradeoff between present and future has not been thoroughly investigated so far. We study experimentally the causal effect of group members' heterogeneous payoffs from waiting on intertemporal choices. We find that three-person groups behave more patiently than individuals. This effect stems from the presence of at least one group member with a high payoff from waiting. We analyze additional treatments, group chat content, and survey data to uncover the mechanism through which heterogeneity in groups increases patience.
Subjects: 
patience
time preferences
group decisions
payoff heterogeneity
experiment
JEL: 
C91
C92
D03
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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