Consume Now or Later? Time Inconsistency, Collective Choice, and Revealed Preference

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Adams, Abi; Cherchye, Laurens; De Rock, Bram; Verriest, Ewout
• 署名单位: University of Oxford; KU Leuven; Universite Libre de Bruxelles; New York University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.12.4147
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 4147-4183
• 关键词: EMPIRICAL TESTS; Discount rate; BEHAVIOR; MODEL; equilibrium; INFORMATION; welfare; demand

摘要

We develop a revealed preference methodology that allows us to explore whether time inconsistencies in household choice are the product of individual preference nonstationarities or the result of individual heterogeneity and renegotiation within the household. An empirical application to household-level microdata highlights that an explicit recognition of the collective nature of household choice enables the observed behavior to be rationalized by a theory that assumes preference stationarity at the individual level. The methodology created in this paper also facilitates the recovery of -theory-consistent discount rates for each individual within particular household under study.