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Patience, self-control and the demand for commitment: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment

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  • Alan, Sule
  • Ertac, Seda

Abstract

Patience and self-control are important non-cognitive skills that are associated with favorable educational, economic and social outcomes. This paper provides empirical evidence to inform discussions on possible educational interventions to make children more forward-looking or less present-biased, by putting forward a way to identify self-control problems in children and exploring the role of commitment devices in mitigating such problems. We report results from an experiment that measures planned allocations, the demand for a commitment device, and actual choices in the context of chocolate consumption over two days. The experiment is conducted as part of a large field study on children's preferences, which allows us to correlate behavior with variables related to the subjects’ socio-economic background and educational environment, as well as preference parameters elicited through other tasks and surveys. We find a large demand for commitment among children. In addition, we identify important correlations between patience, commitment demand and time inconsistency, as well as student-specific personality traits and outcomes such as school success.

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  • Alan, Sule & Ertac, Seda, 2015. "Patience, self-control and the demand for commitment: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 111-122.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:115:y:2015:i:c:p:111-122
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.10.008
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    3. Paul Bettega & Paolo Crosetto & Dimitri Dubois & Rustam Romaniuc, 2023. "Hard vs. soft commitments: Experimental evidence from a sample of French gamblers ," Working Papers hal-04193948, HAL.
    4. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2022. "The Predictive Power of Self-Control for Life Outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 725-744.
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    8. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah Christina & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2022. "The determinants of population self-control," DICE Discussion Papers 385, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    9. Derksen, Laura & Kerwin, Jason Theodore & Reynoso, Natalia Ordaz & Sterck, Olivier, 2021. "Appointments: A More Effective Commitment Device for Health Behaviors," SocArXiv y8gh7, Center for Open Science.
    10. Andreas Ek & Gunes Gokmen & Kaveh Majlesi, 2022. "Cultural Origins of Investment Behavior," Monash Economics Working Papers 2022-16, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    11. Marco Francesconi & James J. Heckman, 2016. "Child Development and Parental Investment: Introduction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 1-27, October.
    12. Frank Schilbach, 2019. "Alcohol and Self-Control: A Field Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1290-1322, April.
    13. Yannick V. Markhof, 2020. "Divide to Conquer? Latent Preference Types and Country-level Heterogeneity," CSAE Working Paper Series 2020-05, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    14. Larbi Alaoui & Christian Fons-Rosen, 2016. "Know when to fold 'em: The grit factor," Economics Working Papers 1521, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2021.
    15. Alaoui, Larbi & Fons-Rosen, Christian, 2021. "Know when to fold’em: The flip side of grit," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    16. Calvin Mudzingiri & John W. Muteba Mwamba & Jacobus Nicolaas Keyser, 2018. "Incentivized Time Preferences, Level of Education in a Household and Financial Literacy: Laboratory Evidence," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(2), pages 103-119.
    17. Bettinger, Eric & Ludvigsen, Sten & Rege, Mari & Solli, Ingeborg F. & Yeager, David, 2018. "Increasing perseverance in math: Evidence from a field experiment in Norway," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-15.
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    19. Sule Alan & Seda Ertac & Inci Gumus, 2021. "Does a forward‐looking perspective affect self‐control and the demand for commitment? Results from an educational intervention," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(4), pages 1533-1546, October.
    20. Zubair, Maria & Khanum, Ayesha & Nasir, Marjan, 2018. "Transfer Of Behavioral Traits From Parents To Children: An Experimental Approach," MPRA Paper 92121, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Alt, Marius, 2021. "Committing to behave pro-environmentally: An assessment of time and regulatee-size effects on the demand for environmental regulation," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242419, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    22. Sophie Hedges & Vahé Nafilyan & Stefan Speckesser & Augustin de Coulon, 2017. "Young people in low level vocational education: characteristics, trajectories and labour market outcomes," CVER Research Papers 004, Centre for Vocational Education Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Patience; Self-control; Commitment; Intertemporal choice; Experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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