Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the context of time consistent labor income taxation privacy can lead to a Pareto superior outcome and increases the effectiveness of public education as a second best policy.

In this paper, I investigate what is the difference in consumption behavior between hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic discounting households by using data from hJapan Household Survey on Consumer Preferences and Satisfactionh conducted by Osaka University. I show that the marginal propensity to...

Standard models of intertemporal utility maximization under uncertainty assume that agents discount future utility flows at a constant compounded rate—exponential discounting. Euler equations estimated over different time horizons should have equal discount rates. They do not. Rising term...

This paper estimates the structural parameters of a job search model with hyperbolic discounting and endogenous search effort. It estimates quantitatively the degree of hyperbolic discounting, and assesses its implications for the impact of various policy interventions aimed at reducing...

We study the effect of hyperbolic discounting on competitive equilibria in secondary markets for a durable good. Under exponential discounting, secondary markets are irrelevant in our model. They do not affect the price in the initial period and are neutral to the allocation. Under hyperbolic...

Many empirical studies on intertemporal choice report preference reversals in the sense that a preference between a small reward to be received soon and a larger reward to be received later reverses as both rewards are equally delayed. Such preference reversals are commonly interpreted as...

In an exchange economy under uncertainty populated by consumers having constant and equal relative risk aversion but heterogeneous probabilistic beliefs, we analyze the nature of the representative consumer's probabilistic belief and discount rates. We prove a formula that implies that the...

This paper investigates a general relationship between risk and time preferences. I consider a decision maker who chooses between consumption of a particular prize in one period and a different prize in another period. The individual believes that today’s good is certain, and that, as the...