Collective Intertemporal Decisions and Heterogeneity in Groups

Arbeitspapier

Many important intertemporal decisions are made by groups rather than individuals. What happens to collective decisions when there is internal conflict about the tradeoff between present and future has not been thoroughly investigated so far. We study experimentally the causal effect of group members' heterogeneous payoffs from waiting on intertemporal choices. We find that three-person groups behave more patiently than individuals. This effect stems from the presence of at least one group member with a high payoff from waiting. We analyze additional treatments, group chat content, and survey data to uncover the mechanism through which heterogeneity in groups increases patience.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14025

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: General‡
• Subject: patience ; time preferences ; group decisions ; payoff heterogeneity ; experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela ; Lergetporer, Philipp ; Sutter, Matthias
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/232777
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET