Risk Preferences Are Not Time Preferences

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Andreoni, James; Sprenger, Charles
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; Stanford University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.7.3357
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 3357-3376
• 关键词: INTERTEMPORAL CHOICE; dynamic consistency; prospect-theory; utility; uncertainty; certainty; disappointment; RESOLUTION; IMMEDIACY; anomalies

摘要

Risk and time are intertwined. The present is known while the future is inherently risky. This is problematic when studying time preferences since uncontrolled risk can generate apparently present-biased behavior. We systematically manipulate risk in an intertemporal choice experiment. Discounted expected utility performs well with risk, but when certainty is added common ratio predictions fail sharply. The data cannot be explained by prospect theory, hyperbolic discounting, or preferences for resolution of uncertainty, but seem consistent with a direct preference for certainty. The data suggest strongly a difference between risk and time preferences.