Lukas Wenner

Abstract

(joint with Felix Kölle, University of Cologne)

We extend the study of present bias from intertemporal choices for own consumption to altruistic behavior. In our longitudinal experiment, subjects make a series of intertemporal allocation decisions of real-effort tasks between themselves and another person. We find substantial time inconsistency in generosity: agents become disproportionally more selfish when decisions have immediate rather than delayed consequences. Using structural estimations, we show that this is due to agents exhibiting present bias in own but not in others' consumption. At the individual level, we find that present bias is a stable behavioral trait which is correlated across individual and social contexts.