We conduct experiments in which participants made multiple intertemporal decisions throughout a seven week period. In addition to exploring dynamic consistency and the stability of single period discount rates, our experiments introduce a manipulation to identify the role of positive and negative mood/affect in intertemporal choice. Our results demonstrate that, while individuals’ single period discount rates are stable over time, there is evidence of dynamic inconsistency. While we find no differences in the discount rates of men and women, we find gender differences in the character of hyperbolic discounting in which women display greater patience in their "present bias". We also identify a gender-mood interaction: Negative mood in women yields increased impulsiveness while inducing positive affect in women or affect (positive or negative) in men yields little change.
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
2663.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Glenn W. Harrison & John A. List, 2004.
"Field Experiments,"
Journal of Economic Literature,
American Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1009-1055, December.
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Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Sébastien Wälti & Signe Krogstrup, 2006.
"Women and budget deficits,"
Trinity Economics Papers
tep0307, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Signe Krogstrup & Sébastien Wälti, 2007.
"Women and Budget Deficits,"
HEI Working Papers
13-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, revised Apr 2007.
[Downloadable!]