The Endogenous Determination of Time Preference

We model a consumer's efforts to reduce the discount on future utilities. Our analysis shows how wealth, mortality, addictions, uncertainty, and other variables affect the degree of time preference. In addition to working out many implications of the model, we discuss evidence on consumption, savings, equilibrium, and the dynamics of inequality. We claim that most ofthat evidence is consistent with the predictions of our approach.

[1]  Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk,et al.  Positive theory of capital , 2006 .

[2]  Gary S. Becker,et al.  Accounting for Tastes , 1997 .

[3]  C. Carroll,et al.  Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis , 1996 .

[4]  C. Mulligan,et al.  Adoption of Financial Technologies: Implications for Money Demand and Monetary Policy , 1996 .

[5]  Robert M. Townsend,et al.  Risk and Insurance in Village India , 1994 .

[6]  Nancy L. Stokey,et al.  Growth Effects of Flat-Rate Taxes , 1993, Journal of Political Economy.

[7]  Angus Deaton,et al.  Intertemporal Choice and Inequality , 1993, Journal of Political Economy.

[8]  Alwyn Young,et al.  Invention and Bounded Learning by Doing , 1991, Journal of Political Economy.

[9]  D. Weil,et al.  A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth Author ( s ) : , 2008 .

[10]  Tullio Jappelli,et al.  Who is Credit Constrained in the U. S. Economy , 1990 .

[11]  Donald Cox.  Intergenerational Transfers and Liquidity Constraints , 1990 .

[12]  P. Romer.  Endogenous Technological Change , 1989, Journal of Political Economy.

[13]  C. Carroll,et al.  Consumption Growth Parallels Income Growth: Some New Evidence , 1989 .

[14]  S. Zeldes.  Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation , 1989, Journal of Political Economy.

[15]  Kevin M. Murphy,et al.  A Theory of Rational Addiction , 1988, Journal of Political Economy.

[16]  R. Barro.  Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogeneous Growth , 1988, Journal of Political Economy.

[17]  G. Loewenstein.  Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption , 1987 .

[18]  Larry G. Epstein.  The Global Stability of Efficient Intertemporal Allocations , 1987 .

[19]  P. Romer.  Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[20]  Nancy L. Stokey,et al.  Optimal growth with many consumers , 1984 .

[21]  G. Becker,et al.  The Allocation of Time and Goods Over the Life Cycle , 1975 .

[22]  I. Fisher,et al.  The theory of interest , 1956 .

[23]  G. Stigler.  The Theory of Price , 1948 .

[24]  Alvin S. Johnson,et al.  The Sociological Theory of Capital. , 1907 .

[25]  George Loewenstein,et al.  The fall and rise of psychological explanations in the economics of intertemporal choice. , 1992 .

[26]  C. Carroll.  The Buffer-Stock Theory of Saving: Some Macroeconomic Evidence , 1992 .

[27]  R. Hall.  Substitution over Time in Consumption and Work , 1991 .

[28]  Kenneth J. Arrow,et al.  Preference, production, and capital: Time preference, the consumption function, and optimum asset holdings , 1989 .

[29]  J. Skinner,et al.  A SUPERIOR MEASURE OF CONSUMPTION FROM THE PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS , 1987 .

[30]  J. Sonquist,et al.  A Cohort Analysis of Changes in the Distribution of Wealth , 1969 .

[31]  Dorothy S. Projector,et al.  Composition of Income as Shown by the Survey of Financial Characteristics of Consumers , 1969 .

[32]  E. Böhm-Bawerk,et al.  History and critique of interest theories , 1959 .