TY - JOUR
T1 - Patience decreases with age for the poor but not for the rich
T2 - an international comparison
AU - Burro, Giovanni
AU - McDonald, Rebecca
AU - Read, Daniel
AU - Taj, Umar
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - We introduce the Preference for Earlier versus Later Income (PELI) scale, measuring patience for over 50,000 individuals from 65 countries. We focus on the relationship between age and income on patience, two variables that have been widely studied in isolation. We find that, within countries, individuals in the richest income quintile are equally patient at any age while individuals in the poorest quintile are less patient the older they are. The relationships in the other quintiles are distributed in an orderly manner between these extremes. We derive a national patience index that correlates with characteristics linked to economic development, with cultural differences associated with patience, and with alternative more complex measures of patience. We recommend adopting PELI in international surveys.
AB - We introduce the Preference for Earlier versus Later Income (PELI) scale, measuring patience for over 50,000 individuals from 65 countries. We focus on the relationship between age and income on patience, two variables that have been widely studied in isolation. We find that, within countries, individuals in the richest income quintile are equally patient at any age while individuals in the poorest quintile are less patient the older they are. The relationships in the other quintiles are distributed in an orderly manner between these extremes. We derive a national patience index that correlates with characteristics linked to economic development, with cultural differences associated with patience, and with alternative more complex measures of patience. We recommend adopting PELI in international surveys.
KW - Patience
KW - Time Discounting
KW - Age
KW - Income
KW - World
UR - https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-economic-behavior-and-organization
U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.11.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.11.005
M3 - Article
VL - 193
SP - 596
EP - 621
JO - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
JF - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
SN - 0167-2681
ER -