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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S ABSTRACT Sleepiness, Choice Consistency, and Risk PreferencesWe investigate the consistency and stability of individual risk preferences by manipulating cognitive resources. Participants are randomly assigned to an experiment session at a preferred time of day relative to their diurnal preference (circadian matched) or at a nonpreferred time (circadian mismatched) and choose allocations between two risky assets (using the Choi et al., 2007, design). Consistency of behavior of circadian matched and mismatched subjects is statistically the same, however mismatched subjects tend to take more risks. We conclude that, consistent with several theories, preferences are rational yet can change depending on state-level cognitive resources. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYIt is generally known that sleepiness affects one's choices when facing risk. It is not known, however, whether behavioral changes due to sleepiness imply a change in the frequency of irrational or inconsistent choices, or whether the changes are due to a basic change in preference towards risk. We manipulate sleepiness by altering the time of day when we administer a monetary risk task to validated morning-type and evening-type individuals. We find that decisions at off-peak times in one's circadian cycle show an increased preference for risk, but the consistency of choices (i.e., rationality) does not differ. This result has important implications. Those who must make decisions while sleepy, such as shift workers, may be susceptible to this tendency to favor risk.JEL Classification: C91, D81

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We present direct evidence that children who are unwilling to wait for a larger reward and instead prefer a small one earlier (i.e. they have a higher discount rate) are less likely to graduate from high school. Using an incentivized experiment to measure the discount rates of 878 children, we find large effects on human capital accumulation-a one standard deviation increase in the discount rate decreases the probability of graduating from high school by four percentage points. Importantly, the impact of a child's discount rate is distinct from behavioral problems (e.g. disciplinary referrals), academic achievement, risk attitudes, demographics and household environment. Consistent with the existence of nonpecuniary costs to finishing high school, impatient children with poor academic achievement are significantly less likely to graduate than impatient children with high achievement.

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