Changing Time Attitudes in Intertemporal Analysis

Intertemporal analysis is extended by generalizing the time weight function of an investor's utility function to account for changes in time attitudes. The resulting measures of decreasing, constant, and increasing time attitudes are comparable to the Arrow-Pratt measures of risk attitudes. They help to enrich intertemporal theory, provide meaningful hypotheses for testing, and broaden the scope for decision analysis over time. Effects of the time attitude measures are illustrated in a model of an agricultural firm. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.