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The economics of impatience

Author

Listed:
  • Ernst Fehr

    (the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zürich)

Abstract

In experiments, animals often prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger rewards that are deferred — thus failing to maximize their total gain. Many people exhibit similar behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernst Fehr, 2002. "The economics of impatience," Nature, Nature, vol. 415(6869), pages 269-272, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6869:d:10.1038_415269a
    DOI: 10.1038/415269a
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    Cited by:

    1. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Fowler, James H., 2014. "Credit card borrowing and the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 428-439.
    2. Stephan Meier & Charles Sprenger, 2010. "Present-Biased Preferences and Credit Card Borrowing," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 193-210, January.
    3. Amit Poddar & Cameron Ellis & Timucin Ozcan, 2015. "Imperfect Recall: The Impact of Composite Spending Information Disclosure on Credit Card Spending," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 93-104, March.
    4. Biljanovska, Nina & Palligkinis, Spyros, 2018. "Control thyself: Self-control failure and household wealth," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 280-294.
    5. Jacopo Panerati & Nicolas Schwind & Stefan Zeltner & Katsumi Inoue & Giovanni Beltrame, 2018. "Assessing the resilience of stochastic dynamic systems under partial observability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Marieke Bos & Chloé Le Coq & Peter van Santen, 2022. "Scarcity and consumers’ credit choices," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 105-139, February.
    7. Liam Delaney & Orla Doyle, 2008. "The Early Childhood Determinants Of Time Preferences," Working Papers 200834, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    8. Di Falco, Salvatore & Berck, Peter & Bezabih, Mintewab & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2019. "Rain and impatience: Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 40-51.
    9. Can, B. & Erdem, O., 2013. "Present-bias in different income groups," Research Memorandum 008, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    10. Brañas Garza, Pablo & Espinosa Alejos, María Paz & Repollés Pro, María, 2010. "Time discounting (delta) and pain anticipation: Experimental evidence," DFAEII Working Papers 1988-088X, University of the Basque Country - Department of Foundations of Economic Analysis II.
    11. Burak Can & Orhan Erdem, 2013. "Income groups and long term investment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(4), pages 3014-3022.
    12. Sergio Da Silva & Newton Da Costa Jr & Raul Matsushita & Cristiana Vieira & Ana Correa & Dinorá De Faveri, 2018. "Debt of high-income consumers may reflect leverage rather than poor cognitive reflection," Review of Behavioral Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 42-52, March.
    13. Wang, Mei & Rieger, Marc Oliver & Hens, Thorsten, 2016. "How time preferences differ: Evidence from 53 countries," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 115-135.
    14. Christoph H. Loch & D. Charles Galunic & Susan Schneider, 2006. "Balancing cooperation and competition in human groups: the role of emotional algorithms and evolution," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2-3), pages 217-233.
    15. Gathergood, John, 2012. "Self-control, financial literacy and consumer over-indebtedness," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 590-602.
    16. Stephan Meier & Charles Sprenger, 2007. "Impatience and credit behavior: evidence from a field experiment," Working Papers 07-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    17. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Debabrata Datta & Souvik Dhar, 2019. "Auction Versus Posted Price Mechanisms in Online Sales: The Roles of Impatience and Dissuasion," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 7(1), pages 75-88, June.
    18. Ladislav Kristoufek, 2013. "Can Google Trends search queries contribute to risk diversification?," Papers 1310.1444, arXiv.org.
    19. Brañas Garza, Pablo & Espinosa Alejos, María Paz & Repollés Pro, María, 2010. "Discounting future pain: Effects on self-reported pain," DFAEII Working Papers 1988-088X, University of the Basque Country - Department of Foundations of Economic Analysis II.
    20. Tomáš Želinský, 2021. "Intertemporal Choices of Children and Adults from Poor Roma Communities: A Case Study from Slovakia," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(4), pages 378-405, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General

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