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Ad Hoc Search Committee for the Editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

American Economic Review 2013 103(3), 774-774 open access
Report: Ad Hoc Search Committee for the Editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy by David Cutler, Amy Finkelstein, Adriana Lleras-Muney, James Poterba, David Romer and Robert Shimer. Published in volume 103, issue 3, pages 774 of American Economic Review, May 2013

The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets

American Economic Review 2013 103(2), 690-731 open access
Languages differ widely in the ways they encode time. I test the hypothesis that the languages that grammatically associate the future and the present, foster future-oriented behavior. This prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language structure are merged with models of intertemporal choice. Empirically, I find that speakers of such languages: save more, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. This holds both across countries and within countries when comparing demographically similar native households. The evidence does not support the most obvious forms of common causation. I discuss implications for theories of intertemporal choice.