Meta-Analysis of Present-Bias Estimation Using Convex Time Budgets

We examine 220 estimates of the present-bias parameter from 28 articles using the Convex Time Budget protocol. The literature shows that people are on average present-biased, but estimates exhibit substantial heterogeneity across studies. There is evidence of modest selective reporting in the direction of overreporting present-bias. The primary source of heterogeneity is the type of reward, either monetary or non-monetary, but this effect is weakened after correcting for selective reporting. In studies using monetary rewards, the delay until the issue of the reward associated with the “current” time period influences estimates of the present-bias parameter

Self Control and Intertemporal Choice: Evidence from Glucose and Depletion Interventions

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4609Recent developments in economic theory model intertemporal choice decisions as problems of restraining one's natural impulse to consume today. We use interventions that have been shown in the psychology literature to affect impulse control to examine whether this is indeed the case for laboratory elicitations of time preference. In other words, is savings behavior affected by manipulations of willpower? Our results are mixed, with one widely used willpower-reducing intervention increasing subjects' savings, and with evidence of a substantial placebo effects with respect to another intervention based on sugared beverage consumption. Since all our treatment effects -which are substantial in magnitude- are driven by increases in the intertemporal substitution elasticity (i.e. greater sensitivity to high prices), we suspect that the primary mechanism behind them is an increase in subjects' attention to the decision, rather than their ability to resist the temptation to get money sooner

Estimating Demand Elasticities for a Small Island Economy: Fiji

An understanding of the responsiveness of food demand to price changes is critical to decision making in the area of food policy. The estimation of these elasticities is difficult in developing countries, such as Fiji, due to a lack of reliable data. We review the existing data on food demand elasticities in Fiji and examine alternative approaches to their estimation given the data constraints present. We use a stated preference approach to provide a new set of estimates of food demand elasticities for Fiji using cross section data.Demand, Food and Agriculture, Stated Preference, Survey, Demand and Price Analysis,

Operational Research in Education

Operational Research (OR) techniques have been applied, from the early stages of the discipline, to a wide variety of issues in education. At the government level, these include questions of what resources should be allocated to education as a whole and how these should be divided amongst the individual sectors of education and the institutions within the sectors. Another pertinent issue concerns the efficient operation of institutions, how to measure it, and whether resource allocation can be used to incentivise efficiency savings. Local governments, as well as being concerned with issues of resource allocation, may also need to make decisions regarding, for example, the creation and location of new institutions or closure of existing ones, as well as the day-to-day logistics of getting pupils to schools. Issues of concern for managers within schools and colleges include allocating the budgets, scheduling lessons and the assignment of students to courses. This survey provides an overview of the diverse problems faced by government, managers and consumers of education, and the OR techniques which have typically been applied in an effort to improve operations and provide solutions

Assessing the Effect of High Performance Computing Capabilities on Academic Research Output

This paper uses nonparametric methods and some new results on hypothesis testing with nonparametric efficiency estimators and applies these to analyze the effect of locally-available high performance computing (HPC) resources on universities efficiency in producing research and other outputs. We find that locally-available HPC resources enhance the technical efficiency of research output in Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Physics, and History, but not in Computer Science, Economics, nor English; we find mixed results for Biology. Out research results provide a critical first step in a quantitative economic model for investments in HPC

Present bias for monetary and dietary rewards: evidence from Chinese teenagers

Economists model self-control problems through time-inconsistent preferences. Empirical tests of these preferences largely rely on experimental elicitation methods using monetary rewards, with several recent studies failing to find present bias for money. In this paper, we compare estimates of present bias for money with estimates for healthy and unhealthy foods. In a within-subjects longitudinal experiment with 697 low-income Chinese high school students we find strong present bias for both money and food, and that individual measures of present bias are moderately correlated across reward types. Our experimental measures of time preferences over money predict field behaviours better than preferences elicited over foods