Non-parametric test of time consistency: Present bias and future bias

作者：Takeuchi Kan^*

来源：Games and Economic Behavior, 2011, 71(2): 456-478.

DOI：10.1016/j.geb.2010.05.005

• Intertemporal choice
• Time preference
• Present bias
• Future bias
• Reverse time inconsistency
• Increasing impatience
• Decreasing impatience

This paper reports the elicited time preference of human subjects in a laboratory setting. The model allows for non-linear utility functions, non-separability between delay and reward, and time inconsistency including future bias in addition to present bias. In particular, the experiment (1) runs a non-parametric test of time consistency and (2) estimates the form of time discount function independently of instantaneous utility functions, and then (3) the result suggests that many subjects exhibiting future bias, indicating an inverse S-curve time discount function.

• 出版日期2011-3