Time Preferences and Expectations

Last registered on October 20, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Time Preferences and Expectations
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012280
Initial registration date
October 12, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 17, 2023, 1:24 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
October 20, 2023, 9:31 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

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Primary Investigator

Name
Benjamin Young
Affiliation
UTS
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Elif Incekara-Hafalir
PI Affiliation
University of Technology Sydney
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PI Name
Aleksandra Erakhtina
PI Affiliation
University of Technology Sydney
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-10-13
End date
2024-09-30
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
D01, D15, D84, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Expectations have been shown to play an important role in shaping individual behavior. However, little work has investigated the role that expectations regarding the timing of outcomes play in intertemporal decision making. We conduct a study to in which we exogenously manipulate subjects' expectations of when they will receive payment. Our objective is to test whether the elicited time preferences of individuals are affected by these expectations in a way that is consistent with our hypotheses, which are motivated by a simple application of the theory of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences (Koszegi and Rabin, 2006; 2007) applied to intertemporal choice problems.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Erakhtina, Aleksandra, Elif Incekara-Hafalir and Benjamin Young. 2023. "Time Preferences and Expectations." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12280-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our experiment has a control condition and two treatment conditions. Within subject, we also provide variations of the time preference elicitation task that we use.
Intervention Start Date
2023-10-13
Intervention End Date
2024-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Measures of patience level between Today and 8 Weeks
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Subjects are recruited to complete our experiment online (run using Qualtrics). In the experiment, subjects are asked to make choices between payments to be received today and payments to be received 8 weeks in the future. They make these choices either in control or one of two treatments. Subjects then complete a post-experiment survey, asking for demographic information, measures of risk preferences, and answers to a cognitive reflection task.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomisation done by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
240 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
240 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
80 in control, 80 in Today treatment, 80 in Future treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
minimum detectable effect size is d=0.45 with 80% power and alpha=0.05
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UTS HREC (Business Local Research Office)
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-04
IRB Approval Number
ETH22-7315
Analysis Plan