Waiting to Choose: The Role of Deliberation in Intertemporal Choice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Imas, Alex; Kuhn, Michael A.; Mironova, Vera
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; University of Oregon; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20180233
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 414-440
• 关键词: cognitive reflection; time-preferences; PSYCHOLOGY; thinking; FUTURE; delay

摘要

We study the impact of deliberation on intertemporal choices. Using multiple experiments, including a field study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we show that the introduction of waiting periods-a policy that temporally separates information about choices from choices themselves-causes substantially less myopic decisions. These results cannot be captured by models of exponential discounting nor present bias. Comparing the effects of waiting periods to making planned choices over future time periods, the former has a larger impact on reducing myopia. Our results highlight the role of deliberation in decision-making and have implications for policy and intervention design.