The paper "Nonparametric Analysis of Time-Inconsistent Preferences"
By Martin Browning and Co-authors has been accepted for publication in The Review of Economic Studies.
Abstract
This paper provides a revealed preference characterisation of quasi-hyperbolic discounting which is designed to be applied to readily-available expenditure surveys. We describe necessary and sufficient conditions for leading forms of the model and also study the consequences of the restrictions on preferences popularly used in empirical life-cycle consumption models.
Using data from a household consumption panel dataset we explore the prevalence of time-inconsistent behaviour.
This quasi-hyperbolic model provides a significantly more successful account of behaviour than the alternatives considered. We estimate the joint distribution of time preferences and the distribution of discount functions at various time horizons.