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Pre-Commitment and Flexibility in a Time Decision Experiment

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  • Casari, Marco

Abstract

This study presents experimental data on pre-commitment and flexibility where monetary rewards are delivered with an actual delay. Preference for pre-commitment is defined as willingness to pay a cost to restrict the size of the choice set available in the future. Preference for flexibility is defined as willingness to pay a cost to enlarge the choice set available in the future. The existing empirical evidence about these phenomena is rather limited. On the other hand, models of intertemporal choice differ widely on these issues, with some predicting only demand for pre-commitment, others only demand for flexibility, while others neither one. We find that two-thirds of the subjects cannot be accounted for with the canonical exponential discounting model and that there is demand for both pre-commitment and flexibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Casari, Marco, 2006. "Pre-Commitment and Flexibility in a Time Decision Experiment," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1183, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pur:prukra:1183
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    3. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
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    7. Hisaki Kono & Tomomi Tanaka, 2019. "Does marriage work as a savings commitment device? Experimental evidence from Vietnam," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, June.
    8. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    9. Marco Casari, 2009. "Pre-commitment and flexibility in a time decision experiment," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 117-141, April.
    10. Paul Bettega & Paolo Crosetto & Dimitri Dubois & Rustam Romaniuc, 2023. "Hard vs. soft commitments: Experimental evidence from a sample of French gamblers," Working Papers 2023-05, Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).
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    12. Matthias Uhl, 2011. "Do Self-Committers Mind Other-Imposed Commitment? An Experiment on Weak Paternalism," Rationality, Markets and Morals, Frankfurt School Verlag, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, vol. 2(40), June.
    13. Bülow, Catharina Wolff von & Liu, Xiufeng, 2020. "Ready-made oTree applications for the study of climate change adaptation behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Bisin, Alberto & Hyndman, Kyle, 2020. "Present-bias, procrastination and deadlines in a field experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 339-357.
    15. Mohammad Mehdi Mousavi & Mahdi Kohan Sefidi & Shirin Allahyarkhani, 2024. "Awareness of self-control," Papers 2402.11072, arXiv.org.
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    17. Barton L. Lipman & Wolfgang Pesendorfer, 2010. "Temptation," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2010-021, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    18. Antonio Filippin & Paolo Crosetto, 2016. "A Reconsideration of Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(11), pages 3138-3160, November.
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    21. Wei-Yin Hu & Olivia S. Mitchell & Cynthia Pagliaro & Stephen P. Utkus, 2013. "Evaluating Web-based Savings Interventions: A Preliminary Assessment," Working Papers wp299, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    22. Sung-Jin Cho & John Rust, 2015. "Precommitments for Financial Self-Control:Evidence from Credit Card Borrowing," 2015 Meeting Papers 33, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    23. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Schotter, Andrew, 2010. "Present-bias, quasi-hyperbolic discounting, and fixed costs," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 205-223, July.
    24. Schlüter, Tobias & Sievers, Sönke & Hartmann-Wendels, Thomas, 2012. "How can banks effectively stabilize their retail customers saving behavior? The impact of contractual rewards on saving persistence and cash flow volatility," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62057, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    experiments ; time preferences ; time inconsistency ; preference for commitment ; preference for flexibility ; discounting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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