Present Bias

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chakraborty, Anujit
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Davis
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA16467
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1921-1961
• 关键词: INTERTEMPORAL CHOICE; expected utility; time; certainty; preferences; uncertainty; allais; maxmin; RISK

摘要

Present bias is the inclination to prefer a smaller present reward to a larger later reward, but reversing this preference when both rewards are equally delayed. Such behavior violates stationarity of temporal choices, and hence exponential discounting. This paper provides a weakening of the stationarity axiom that can accommodate present-biased choice reversals. We call this new behavioral postulate Weak Present Bias and characterize the general class of utility functions that is consistent with it. We show that present-biased preferences can be represented as those of a decision maker who makes her choices according to conservative present-equivalents, in the face of uncertainty about future tastes.