A Large-Scale, Interdisciplinary Meta-Analysis on Behavioral Economics Parameters

Imai, Rutter, and Camerer examine 220 estimates of the present-bias parameter from 28 articles using the Convex Time Budget protocol. The literature shows that people are on average present biased, but the estimates exhibit substantial heterogeneity across studies. There is evidence of modest selective reporting in the direction of overreporting present bias. The primary source of the heterogeneity is the type of reward, either monetary or non-monetary reward, but the effect is weakened after correcting for potential selective reporting. In the studies using the monetary reward, the delay until the issue of the reward associated with the “current” time period is shown to influence the estimates of the present bias parameter.

Publications associated with this project:

• Imai, Taisuke, Tom A Rutter, and Colin F Camerer. “Meta-Analysis of Present-Bias Estimation Using Convex Time Budgets.” The Economic Journal, no. ueaa115 (September 29, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueaa115.