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Author: Canale, Anthony
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Canale, Anthony
The Association between Time Preference and Net Worth: Incentivized Choice and Scaled Approach Using the NLSY79
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Family Studies and Human Services, Kansas State University, 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Net Worth; Time Preference

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This research study takes a unique approach to examining time preference since the experimental community lacks a clear consensus on how to best measure this construct. Standard risk and time preferences measures are typically achieved through responses to financially incentivized choice questions. Researchers have argued that incentivized choice questions may be common but they lack precision. Therefore, combining behaviors that involve intertemporal tradeoffs into a scale to measure time preference is believed to be a more accurate indicator of time preference. However, there is little research that has reliably developed and tested its use. This research examines time preference by comparing incentive choice questions as a proxy for time preference as well as an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors using a national representative sample.

Regression analysis revealed that that time preference measured using an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors was significantly associated with net worth. The incentive choice questions as a measure of time preference were not significantly associated with net worth. The respondents with a high rate of intertemporal discounting as measured by the time preference scale accumulated less net-worth than respondents with a lower rate of intertemporal discounting. In addition, in the regression model when individual behaviors involving intertemporal tradeoffs such as smoking, drinking, and not taking physical exams were added as individual behaviors, the model was the preferred predictor of net worth.

Bibliography Citation
Canale, Anthony. The Association between Time Preference and Net Worth: Incentivized Choice and Scaled Approach Using the NLSY79. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Family Studies and Human Services, Kansas State University, 2018.