IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/b4mg7_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inconsistent Planning and the Allocation of Tasks Over Time

Author

Listed:
  • Bhatia, Sudeep
  • Crawford, Megan M

    (Edinburgh Napier University)

  • McDonald, Rebecca Louise
  • Moreno, Miguel A.
  • Read, Daniel

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

We test the hypothesis of inconsistent planning proposed by Strotz (1955). In the laboratory, participants allocated time between ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ tasks, and were offered a commitment device. Original plans tended to delay leisure, and to involve a moderate degree of spreading between work and leisure tasks. Most participants preferred commitment over flexibility. Although most were denied commitment, few altered their plans. Those that did make changes tended to further postpone leisure. We find limited evidence of discounting or impatience, contrary to the predictions of most theoretical models of inconsistent planning. Instead, our results imply a preference for improving sequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhatia, Sudeep & Crawford, Megan M & McDonald, Rebecca Louise & Moreno, Miguel A. & Read, Daniel, 2021. "Inconsistent Planning and the Allocation of Tasks Over Time," OSF Preprints b4mg7_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:b4mg7_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/b4mg7_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/6091453119183d033e551783/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/b4mg7_v1?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duffy, Sean & Smith, John, 2013. "Preference for increasing wages: How do people value various streams of income?," Judgment and Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 74-90, January.
    2. Marco Casari & Davide Dragone, 2015. "Choice reversal without temptation: A dynamic experiment on time preferences," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 119-140, April.
    3. George-Marios Angeletos & David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman & Stephen Weinberg, 2001. "The Hyberbolic Consumption Model: Calibration, Simulation, and Empirical Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 47-68, Summer.
    4. Katherine Milkman & Todd Rogers & Max Bazerman, 2010. "I’ll have the ice cream soon and the vegetables later: A study of online grocery purchases and order lead time," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 17-35, March.
    5. Giles W Story & Ivaylo Vlaev & Ben Seymour & Joel S Winston & Ara Darzi & Raymond J Dolan, 2013. "Dread and the Disvalue of Future Pain," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Loewenstein, George F & Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. "Do Workers Prefer Increasing Wage Profiles?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 67-84, January.
    7. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein, 2008. "Conflicting motives in evaluations of sequences," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 221-235, December.
    8. Bram Van den Bergh & Siegfried Dewitte & Luk Warlop, 2008. "Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 85-97, January.
    9. Katherine L. Milkman & Todd Rogers & Max H. Bazerman, 2009. "Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-Inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1047-1059, June.
    10. Yoram Halevy, 2015. "Time Consistency: Stationarity and Time Invariance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 335-352, January.
    11. Serdar Sayman & Ayse Öncüler, 2009. "An Investigation of Time Inconsistency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 470-482, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bhatia, Sudeep & Crawford, Megan M & McDonald, Rebecca Louise & Moreno, Miguel A. & Read, Daniel, 2021. "Inconsistent Planning and the Allocation of Tasks Over Time," OSF Preprints b4mg7, Center for Open Science.
    2. Giles W Story & Ivo Vlaev & Peter Dayan & Ben Seymour & Ara Darzi & Raymond J Dolan, 2015. "Anticipation and Choice Heuristics in the Dynamic Consumption of Pain Relief," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-32, March.
    3. Laurent Denant-Boemont & Enrico Diecidue & Olivier l’Haridon, 2017. "Patience and time consistency in collective decisions," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 181-208, March.
    4. Daniel Read & Christopher Y. Olivola & David J. Hardisty, 2017. "The Value of Nothing: Asymmetric Attention to Opportunity Costs Drives Intertemporal Decision Making," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4277-4297, December.
    5. Akin, Zafer & Yavas, Abdullah, 2023. "Elicited Time Preferences and Behavior in Long-Run Projects," MPRA Paper 117133, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Arthur E. Attema & Han Bleichrodt & Kirsten I. M. Rohde & Peter P. Wakker, 2010. "Time-Tradeoff Sequences for Analyzing Discounting and Time Inconsistency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(11), pages 2015-2030, November.
    7. Piccoli, Luca & Tiezzi, Silvia, 2021. "Rational addiction and time-consistency: An empirical test," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Li, Jiangyuan & Liu, Bo & Yang, Jinqiang & Zou, Zhentao, 2020. "Hedge fund’s dynamic leverage decisions under time-inconsistent preferences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(2), pages 779-791.
    9. Haewon Yoon, 2020. "Impatience and Time Inconsistency in Discounting Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5850-5860, December.
    10. Strulik, Holger & Werner, Katharina, 2023. "Renewable resource use with imperfect self-control," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 778-795.
    11. Drouhin, Nicolas, 2020. "Non-stationary additive utility and time consistency," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-14.
    12. Minghao Pan, 2022. "Risk and Intertemporal Preferences over Time Lotteries," Papers 2209.01790, arXiv.org.
    13. Duffy, Sean & Smith, John & Woods, Kristin, 2015. "How does the preference for increasing payments depend on the size and source of the payments?," MPRA Paper 64212, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Shotaro Shiba & Kazumi Shimizu, 2018. "Does time inconsistency differ between gain and loss? An intra-personal comparison using a non-parametric elicitation method (A revised version)," Working Papers 1807, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    15. Katherine L. Milkman & Todd Rogers & Max H. Bazerman, 2009. "Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-Inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1047-1059, June.
    16. Katharina Dowling & Daniel Guhl & Daniel Klapper & Martin Spann & Lucas Stich & Narine Yegoryan, 2020. "Behavioral biases in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 449-477, May.
    17. Palenik Marcin, 2021. "The effect of uncertainty on negative discounting," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 57(4), pages 287-298, December.
    18. Zhou Yongwu & Lin Zhaozhan, 2016. "Impacts of Hyperbolic Discounting on Inventory Replenishment Policy Under Inflation," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 24-39, February.
    19. Bougherara, Douadia & Lapierre, Margaux & Préget, Raphaële & Sauquet, Alexandre, 2021. "Do farmers prefer increasing, decreasing, or stable payments in Agri-environmental schemes?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    20. Pavlo R. Blavatskyy, 2022. "Intertemporal choice as a tradeoff between cumulative payoff and average delay," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 89-107, February.

    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:osf:osfxxx:b4mg7_v1. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    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.