Delay of gratification and the role of defaults—An experiment with kindergarten children

Sutter, Matthias; Yılmaz, Levent; Oberauer, Manuela

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2015.08.028

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We find that time preferences evolve significantly as children age, with younger children displaying more impatience than older children. This is in line with related work that finds a similar association with age (Bettinger and Slonim, 2007;Angerer et al, 2015;Deckers et al, 2015;Sutter et al, 2015). We also find a strong association with race: black children are significantly more impatient than white or Hispanic children, even while controlling for socio-economic status, cognitive skills and executive function skills.…”

supporting

confidence: 93%

“…Our time preference elicitation methodology is similar to that used with adults in experimental economics, and is in line with related work in developmental psychology that uses children as young as age 2-3 to study future orientation (Schwarz et al, 1983;Lemmon and Moore, 2007;Garon et al, 2012). Our elicitation is similar to Sutter et al (2015), who conduct time preference experiments with Kindergarteners and use 1 choice of 1 reward today versus 2 rewards the next day. Different from Sutter et al 2015, we used a series of questions with varying interest rates rather than just one question.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Toward an understanding of the development of time preferences: Evidence from field experiments

Andreoni¹,

Kuhn

List³

et al. 2019

Journal of Public Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Time preferences have been correlated with a range of life outcomes, yet little is known about their early development. We conduct a field experiment to elicit time preferences of over 1,200 children ages 3-12, who make several intertemporal decisions. To shed light on how such primitives form, we explore various channels that might affect time preferences, from background characteristics to the causal impact of an early schooling program that we developed and operated. Our results suggest that time preferences evolve substantially during this period, with younger children displaying more impatience than older children. We also find a strong association with race: black children, relative to white or Hispanic children, are more impatient. Finally, assignment to different schooling opportunities is not significantly associated with child time preferences.

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Toward an understanding of the development of time preferences: Evidence from field experiments

Andreoni¹,

Kuhn

List³

et al. 2019

Journal of Public Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is where recent work in behavioral economics can potentially offer a starting point for future studies. Setting appropriate defaults, encouraging active decision making (by making the choice options more transparent and forcing subjects to make a choice), or providing commitment facilities has been identified as useful instruments to promote future-oriented behavior (Choi et al, 2003;Carroll et al, 2009;Beshears et al, 2011;Sutter et al, 2015). Given our findings on the relation between language and intertemporal choices, we consider it an interesting question for future research whether these instruments work equally well in languages with weak or strong futuretime reference and how they could be used to train the patience of children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On top of the 1,154 children considered so far, we have 261 children where both parents speak a s-FTR-language which is not Italian. 13 The most frequent of these languages are Albanian (95 cases), Arabic (40), Macedonian (22), Urdu (19), Bosnian/Serbian (18), Hindi (7), and Polish (6). We can compare the choice behavior of these children to the monolingual Italian-speaking children (440 children) who also belong to the s-FTR group and to the monolingual German-speaking children (420) from the w-FTR group.…”

Section: Vc Children From Families Where Parents Speak Neither German Nor Italianmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Children's Intertemporal Choices

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Children's Intertemporal Choices * According to Chen's (2013) linguistic-savings hypothesis, languages which grammatically separate the future and the present (like English or Italian) induce less future-oriented behavior than languages in which speakers can refer to the future by using present tense (like German). We complement Chen's approach with experimentally elicited time preference data from a bilingual city in Northern Italy. We find that German-speaking primary school children are about 46% more likely than Italian-speaking children to delay gratification in an intertemporal choice experiment. The difference remains significant in several robustness checks and when controlling for a broad range of factors, including risk attitudes, IQ or family background.

show abstract

“…It has been identified as a crucial predictor of lifetime achievement in many domains. Research shows that individuals who grow up to be patient eventually do better in life, such as in educational achievement, occupational achievement, consumption and financial stability, physical health and relationships (Barnett et al, 2009;Sutter et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delay of gratificationand business performancein least developed countries

Xayavongsa

Pholphirul

2019

JEEE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Does delay of gratification affect the probability of engaging in self-employment and does it contribute to business performance? This paper aims to quantify impacts of delay of gratification on engaging in self-employment and business performance. Design/methodology/approach Using Lao PDR as a representative of least developed countries, the authors analyze nationally representative survey data from the Lao PDR – STEP Skills Measurement Household Survey and estimate the binary logit/probit model to quantify impacts of delay of gratification on probability of self-employment. And, the impacts of delayed gratification on business performance of the self-employed individuals are also estimated. Findings Those with a lower degree of delayed gratification tend to elect to be self-employed instead of being full-time employees. However, a higher delay of gratification score is found to positively correlate with higher business performance among those who are self-employed. Other control variables such as business characteristics, education level and skills of the self-employed also play an important role in higher business performance. Research limitations/implications Analysis from this paper still shows some weak points and limitations. First, the data set on self-employment has little representation from industry and the service sector and lacks many important variables such as parents’ characteristics and working hours. Second, there is no clear measurement of delay of gratification, as the measurements use only hypothesis money. Finally, there is a lack of studies to back up the result of delay of gratification on business performance, especially in a least developed country such as Lao PDR. The authors suggest that future research be conducted with richer data regarding the self-employed in industries and services. It would be quite interesting to study further the effect of delay of gratification along with grit, another behavioral variable, on business performance. Practical implications Based on the findings, it is therefore crucial that the Lao Government support a policy that helps strengthen both cognitive and noncognitive skills and the delay of gratification along with education to make Lao self-employment more productive. Social implications Providing the self-employed with adequate skills to succeed in their enterprises can lead them and the nation to escape the poverty trap. Family, school and government should promote delay of gratification among young children. Encouraging special activities that foster emotional and behavioral skills learning and practice for children, such as religious learning and meditation, might boost their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, support for skills training, both basic and job-relevant skills, could promote business experience exchange by creating an organization that provides guidelines, information and advice for self-employment. Originality/value Even though there is extensive research indicating that delayed gratification exists in many contexts, there are very few studies investigating the impact of delayed gratification on the business, especially on the decision to be self-employed and the resulting business performance. The delay of gratification could be one factor that influences decisions on job selection or employment status and that influences business performance as well. This paper is also the first one conducted in a least developed country such as Lao PDR.

show abstract

Delay of gratification and the role of defaults—An experiment with kindergarten children

Cited by 28 publications

References 10 publications

Toward an understanding of the development of time preferences: Evidence from field experiments

Toward an understanding of the development of time preferences: Evidence from field experiments

The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Children's Intertemporal Choices

Delay of gratificationand business performancein least developed countries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About