Using an overlapping generations model, this paper describes interactions between nai͏̈ve and sophisticated hyperbolic discounters in general equilibrium. The nai͏̈fs, who overestimate their future propensity to save and hence over-forecast the future equilibrium asset prices, are exploited...

The Chichilnisky criterion is an explicit social welfare function that satisfies compelling conditions of intergenerational equity. However, it is time inconsistent and has no optimal solution in the Ramsey model. By investigating stationary Markov equilibria in the game that generations with...

This study analyses the relation between perceived health status and intertemporal choice. We use data from experiments with real monetary rewards conduEted among students in South Africa to estimate risk and time preferences. These experimental data, based on muitiple price lists developed by...

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

Goals are an important source of motivation. But little is known about why and how people set them. We address these questions in a model based on two stylized facts from psychology and behavioral economics: i) Goals serve as reference points for performance. ii) Present-biased preferences...

It is a puzzle why people often evaluate consequences of choices separately (narrow bracketing) rather than jointly (broad bracketing). We study the hypothesis that a present-biased individual, who faces two tasks, may bracket his goals narrowly for motivational reasons. Goals motivate because...

We show that a steeply increasing workload before a deadline is compatible with time-consistent preferences. The key departure from the literature is that we consider a stochastic environment where success of effort is not guaranteed. -- Increasing Workload ; Deadline ; Stochasticity

Using an overlapping generations model, this paper describes interactions between nai͏̈ve and sophisticated hyperbolic discounters in general equilibrium. The nai͏̈fes, who overestimate their future propensity to save and hence over-forecast the future equilibrium asset prices, are exploited...

We propose a novel utility representation for preferences over risky timed outcomes. The weighted temporal utility model generalizes many well known utility functions for intertemporal decision making under risk. A decision maker with a weighted temporal utility function can have time consistent...

It has been argued that hyperbolic discounting of future gains and losses leads to time-inconsistent behavior and thereby, in the context of health economics, not enough investment in health and too much indulgence of unhealthy consumption. Here, we challenge this view. We set up a life-cycle...