We study the heritability of risk, uncertainty, and time preferences using a field experiment with a large sample of adult twins. We also offer a meta-analysis of existing findings. Our field study introduces a novel empirical approach that marries behavioral genetics with structural...

Attitudes toward risk underlie virtually every important economic decision an individual makes. In this experimental study, I examine how introducing a time delay into the execution of an investment plan influences individuals' risk preferences. The field experiment proceeded in three stages: a...

The aim of this study is to link variation in energy cost misperceptions to variation in households' energy consumption. The focus is on two sorts of misperceptions: First, present biased discounting of future energy costs and second, biased energy price beliefs. By running an artefactual field...

When consuming goods provided by public utilities, such as telecommunication, water, gas or electricity, the predominant payment scheme is pay-later billing. This paper identifies one potential consequence of pay-later schemes, present-biased overconsumption of the respective good, and tests...

Hyperbolic discounting and lack of self-control are different phenomena that share the property of dynamic inconsistency. Despite being different, these two concepts have been extensively conflated and confused in Economics. I review the definitions and properties of both concepts, the...

The paper analyzes the effects of present-biased preferences on the transfer of resources to future generations in the framework of renewable resource harvesting. The paper assumes that the current generation has other-regarding motivations for future generations, expressed through the adherence...

This paper documents extensive commitment to mandatory debt repayment. In a natural experiment in which households can apply for free mortgage-payment flexibility for one to twelve months, 43 percent of applicants choose a dominated option of short flexibility. I argue that short flexibility...

Intertemporal tradeoffs play a key role in many personal decisions and policy questions. We describe models of intertemporal choice, identify empirical regularities in choice, and pose new questions for research. The focus for intertemporal choice research is no longer whether the exponential...

The preference to receive benefits as early as possible and delay costs as much as possible is natural for people. That means a positive discount rate in the intertemporal choice, which is a common assumption in economics. However, as research in behavioral economics proves, in certain...

When consuming goods provided by public utilities, such as telecommunication, water, gas or electricity, the predominant payment scheme is pay-later billing. This paper identifies one potential consequence of pay-later schemes, present-biased overconsumption of the respective good, and tests the...