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The early childhood determinants of time preferences

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  • Liam Delaney
  • Orla Doyle

Abstract

Research on time preference formation and socioeconomic differences in discounting has received little attention to date. This article examines the extent to which early childhood differences emerge in measures of hyperactivity, impulsivity and persistence, all of which are good psychometric analogues to how economists conceptualise discounting. We examine the distribution of these traits measured at age three across parental social class and analyse the extent to which different mechanism plausibly generate the observed social class distribution. In addition, we control for a wide ranging of potentially mediating factors including parental investment and proxies for maternal time preferences. Our results show substantial social class variations across all measures. We find only weak evidence that this relates to differential maternal time preferences (e.g. savings behaviour, abstaining from smoking) but relatively stronger evidence that these traits are transmitted through the parents own non-cognitive skill set (self-esteem, attachment etc.) and parental time investments (e.g. time spent reading to the child and teaching the child to write, sing etc.).

Suggested Citation

  • Liam Delaney & Orla Doyle, 2008. "The early childhood determinants of time preferences," Open Access publications 10197/1213, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/1213
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/1213
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. C. Osiander & M. Dietz, 2016. "Determinanten der Weiterbildungsbereitschaft: Ergebnisse eines faktoriellen Surveys unter Arbeitslosen [What determines the motivation for further training? Results from a factorial survey among jo," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 49(1), pages 59-76, July.

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