We propose a new method to test for efficient risk pooling that allows for intertemporal smoothing, non-homothetic consumption, and heterogeneous risk and time preferences. The method is composed of three steps. The first one allows for precautionary savings by the aggregate risk pooling group....

Cash transfers are shown to improve production, increase investment and induce productive practices by farmers. Despite a rich literature showing these desired outcomes, less is known about the pathways that produce these impacts. We use a large-scale cash transfer program in Sub-Saharan Africa...

I model the labor supply of taxi drivers as the result of optimization based on an inter-temporal utility function. Since income effects in response to temporary fluctuations in daily earnings opportunities are likely to be small, cumulative hours will be much more important than cumulative...

Estimates of the parameters of the quasi-hyperbolic discounting model–beta and delta–have been used for quantitative purposes, including comparisons of the psychology of discounting between populations and decision-making contexts, design of optimal regulation, and adjustment of benefits in...

This paper examines the dynamic pricing decisions of a monopolist seller when customers have time-inconsistent preferences, which is modeled by quasi-hyperbolic discounting. By considering the cases where customers can be sophisticated, naive, or partially naive about their time-inconsistent...

Many professional and educational settings require individuals to be willing and able to perform under time pressure. We use a lab experiment to elicit preferences for working under time pressure in an incentivized way by eliciting the minimum additional payment participants require to complete...

We characterize optimal consumption policies in a recursive intertemporal utility framework with local substitution. We establish existence and uniqueness and a version of the Kuhn-Tucker theorem characterizing the optimal consumption plan. An explicit solution is provided for the case when the...

We study the malleability of patience via educational interventions by aggregating evidence from earlier experiments in a meta-analysis and by conducting a field experiment. We find that the average effect of interventions on patience is positive but uncertain. The age of students explains a...