SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF DELAYED RISKY OUTCOMES: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

This paper uses experimental data to estimate the pure time discount rate for different lengths of times for riskless assets (bonds), and risky assets (delayed lotteries). In moving from the present time (t = 0) to the future, there is a very sharp decline (jump) in the subjective price of the assets for both buy and sell transactions. This jump corresponds to a large increase in the discount rate for the first period and a much lower discount rate for later periods (forward rate). The findings cast doubt on the relevance of the hyperbolic function approach to discounting.