Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35361 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4057
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Heterogeneity in time discounting may reinforce the existing barriers to save and invest faced by rural populations in developing countries. We elicit a subjective discount rate for a varied sample of Ugandan villagers. In accordance with other studies, we have found the discount rate to decrease with education. We examine this correlation further by testing the causal effect of education and exploit two different sources of its variation: school frequency across villages and the number of the respondents' school-going years that overlap with the era of the dictator Idi Amin's rule. For men, we find that education has a significant impact on their discount rate, similar in magnitude for both types of instruments and robust to observable characteristics. This finding highlights the importance of education in development.
Subjects: 
Time discounting
patience
education
economic development
Uganda
JEL: 
C93
D91
O12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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