Revising Commitments: Field Evidence on the Adjustment of Prior Choices

Xavier Giné; Jessica Goldberg; Daniel Silverman; Dean Yang

doi:10.1111/ecoj.12378

Revising Commitments: Field Evidence on the Adjustment of Prior Choices

Xavier Giné, Jessica Goldberg, Daniel Silverman, Dean Yang

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

We implement an artefactual field experiment in rural Malawi to study revisions of prior choices regarding future income receipts. This allows examination of intertemporal choice revision and its determinants. New tests provide evidence of self-control problems for some participants. Revisions of money allocations towards the present are positively associated with refined measures of present-bias from an earlier survey and with the randomly assigned closeness in time to the first possible date of money disbursement. We find little evidence that revisions of allocations towards the present are associated with spousal preferences for such revision, household shocks, or the financial sophistication of respondents.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	159-188
Number of pages	30
Journal	Economic Journal
Volume	128
Issue number	608
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12378
State	Published - Feb 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics

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10.1111/ecoj.12378

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Revising Commitments: Field Evidence on the Adjustment of Prior Choices

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