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Credit Constraints and the Measurement of Time Preferences

Mark Dean1; Anja Sautmann2

1 Columbia University · 2 World Bank

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2021 open access

Incentivized experiments are often used to identify the time preferences of households in developing countries. We argue theoretically and empirically that experimental measures may not identify preference parameters, but are a useful tool for understanding financial shocks and constraints. Using data from an experiment in Mali, we find that subject responses vary with savings and financial shocks, meaning they provide information about credit constraints and can be used to test models of risk sharing.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00903
Volume
103 (1)
Pages
119-135
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
crossref openalex