IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sochwe/v54y2020i4d10.1007_s00355-019-01222-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Welfare implications of naive and sophisticated saving

Author

Listed:
  • Ram Fishman

    (Tel Aviv University)

Abstract

Agents with declining discount rates who are unable to commit to their future decisions can either be sophisticated—meaning that they anticipate their future behavior and take it into account in their consumption choices—or naive. Previous studies have shown that sophistication may lead to higher or lower consumption rates, but have not resolved the implications for welfare, arguably the most important question from an economic point of view. Since neither the sophisticated nor the naive solutions are Pareto-efficient, their own welfare ranking is not obvious. This paper shows that the ‘better saver’ amongst the two (lower consumption rate) is always better-off, from all temporal perspectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Ram Fishman, 2020. "Welfare implications of naive and sophisticated saving," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 54(4), pages 623-638, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:54:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s00355-019-01222-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-019-01222-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00355-019-01222-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00355-019-01222-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldman, Steven Marc, 1979. "Intertemporally Inconsistent Preferences and the Rate of Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(3), pages 621-626, May.
    2. Laibson, David, 1998. "Life-cycle consumption and hyperbolic discount functions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 861-871, May.
    3. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2001. "Choice and Procrastination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 121-160.
    4. B. Douglas Bernheim & Antonio Rangel, 2005. "Behavioral Public Economics: Welfare and Policy Analysis with Non-Standard Decision-Makers," NBER Working Papers 11518, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. E. S. Phelps & R. A. Pollak, 1968. "On Second-Best National Saving and Game-Equilibrium Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(2), pages 185-199.
    6. Salanie, Francois & Treich, Nicolas, 2006. "Over-savings and hyperbolic discounting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 1557-1570, August.
    7. Karp, Larry, 2007. "Non-constant discounting in continuous time," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 557-568, January.
    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. David I. Laibson, 1996. "Hyperbolic Discount Functions, Undersaving, and Savings Policy," NBER Working Papers 5635, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. R. H. Strotz, 1955. "Myopia and Inconsistency in Dynamic Utility Maximization," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(3), pages 165-180.
    11. Bezalel Peleg & Menahem E. Yaari, 1973. "On the Existence of a Consistent Course of Action when Tastes are Changing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 391-401.
    12. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Ramsey Meets Laibson in the Neoclassical Growth Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1125-1152.
    13. Grout, Paul, 1983. "Efficiency of sophisticated choice," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 12(3-4), pages 229-234.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kirill Borissov & Mikhail Pakhnin & Ronald Wendner, 2022. "Kantian Optimization with Quasi-Hyperbolic Discounting," CESifo Working Paper Series 9790, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Management of a capital stock by Strotz's naive planner," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 2214-2239, July.
    2. Kirill Borissov & Mikhail Pakhnin & Ronald Wendner, 2020. "Naive Agents with Quasi-hyperbolic Discounting and Perfect Foresight," EUSP Department of Economics Working Paper Series 2020/03, European University at St. Petersburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Caliendo, Frank N. & Findley, T. Scott, 2019. "Commitment and welfare," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 210-234.
    4. Takeo Hori & Koichi Futagami, 2019. "A Non‐unitary Discount Rate Model," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 86(341), pages 139-165, January.
    5. Drouhin, Nicolas, 2020. "Non-stationary additive utility and time consistency," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Minwook Kang, 2015. "Welfare criteria for quasi-hyperbolic time preferences," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2506-2511.
    7. Minwook Kang, 2019. "Pareto-improving tax policies under hyperbolic discounting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(3), pages 618-660, June.
    8. Kodritsch, Sebastian, 2015. "A note on the welfare of a sophisticated time-inconsistent decision-maker," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Behavior SP II 2015-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. Kang, Jingoo & Kang, Minwook, 2022. "Durable goods as commitment devices under quasi-hyperbolic discounting," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    10. Liya Liu & Yingjie Niu & Yuanping Wang & Jinqiang Yang, 2020. "Optimal consumption with time-inconsistent preferences," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(3), pages 785-815, October.
    11. Kang, Minwook & Kim, Eungsik, 2023. "A government policy with time-inconsistent consumers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 44-67.
    12. Ryoji Ohdoi & Koichi Futagami, 2021. "Welfare implications of non-unitary time discounting," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 85-115, February.
    13. Salanie, Francois & Treich, Nicolas, 2006. "Over-savings and hyperbolic discounting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 1557-1570, August.
    14. Geraats, P.M., 2005. "Intertemporal Substitution and Hyperbolic Discounting," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0515, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Chen, Shumin & Luo, Dan & Yao, Haixiang, 2024. "Optimal investor life cycle decisions with time-inconsistent preferences," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Zhao, Qian & Shen, Yang & Wei, Jiaqin, 2014. "Consumption–investment strategies with non-exponential discounting and logarithmic utility," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(3), pages 824-835.
    17. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    18. Pengyu Wei & Wei Wei, 2024. "Irreversible investment under weighted discounting: effects of decreasing impatience," Papers 2409.01478, arXiv.org.
    19. Feigenbaum, James & Raei, Sepideh, 2023. "Lifecycle consumption and welfare with nonexponential discounting in continuous time," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    20. Groneck, Max & Ludwig, Alexander & Zimper, Alexander, 2024. "Who saves more, the naive or the sophisticated agent?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:54:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s00355-019-01222-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.