Household time preference for US households, as measured by the planning horizon, was fairly stable for many years, but sharply changed with the onset of the Great Recession. Based on an analysis of a combination of the 1992-2013 Survey of Consumer Finances datasets, time preference increased in...

Many researchers have examined the influence of the financial planning horizon variable in the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Health and Retirement Study. The question asks respondents to choose the most important time period for saving and spending decisions. These researchers have assumed...

Economists conducting normative analyses of household financial decisions typically assume specific values of parameters of the household utility function. We review 12 normative analyses and discuss justifications for the personal discount rates assumed. None of the normative articles cited an...