A computational experiment on elicitation task bias in time preference Online publication date: Tue, 14-Jul-2015
by Oksana Tokarchuk; Roberto Gabriele
International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics (IJCEE), Vol. 5, No. 3, 2015
Abstract: Experimental results from research on time preference are often controversial. We propose a systematic investigation of choice task in multiple price list (MPL) format, frequently used for experiments on time preference, based on a computer simulation analysis. Our experiments with artificial subjects demonstrate that elicited discount rates are highly dependent on the structure of elicitation task. Indeed, implementing the choice task in MPL with nominal structure provides observations of hyperbolic discounting. Choice task in MPL with interest rates structure leads to elicitations of discount rates compatible with exponential discounting. The comparison between discount rates elicited with artificial and human subjects suggests that the behaviour of human subjects in experiments with MPL can be described by the simple rules of positive discounting and anchoring. Experimental procedures related with MPL setting has to take into account the results and modify the task accordingly.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics (IJCEE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook