In recent post I discussed Tobias and time preference -the general conclusion was he was very impatient, although there was also an element og inconsistency in his choices. Eric Bettinger and Robert Slonim have an article in the Journal of Public Economics (Feb 2007) touching on children's rationality and patience. According tot he authors children are impatient and probably not rational and there is a lack of a relationship between mathematical ability and pateience. An extract from the abstract below:
....little is known about the nature of children’s patience, how it varies across children, and whether children can even make rational inter-temporal choices. This paper examines the inter-temporal choices of 5- to 16-year-old children in an artefactual field experiment. We examine their choices between varying levels of compensation received in 2 or 4 months in the future and in 0 or 2 months in the future. We find that children’s choices are consistent with hyperbolic discounting, boys are less patient than girls, older children are more patient and that mathematical achievement test scores, private schooling and parent’s patience are not correlated with children’s patience...The paper is available here (forthcoming version)
No comments:
Post a Comment