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Individual Discount Rates and Smoking: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Denmark

Harrison, G.W.; Lau, M.I.; Rutström, E.E.

Authors

G.W. Harrison

E.E. Rutström



Abstract

We elicit measures of individual discount rates from a representative sample of the Danish population and test two substantive hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that smokers have higher individual discount rates than non-smokers. The second hypothesis is that smokers are more likely to have time inconsistent preferences than non-smokers, where time inconsistency is indicated by a hyperbolic discounting function. We control for the concavity of the utility function in our estimates of individual discount rates and find that male smokers have significantly higher discount rates than male non-smokers. However, smoking has no significant association with discount rates among women. This result is robust across exponential and hyperbolic discounting functions. We consider the sensitivity of our conclusions to a statistical specification that allows each observation to potentially be generated by more than one latent data-generating process.

Citation

Harrison, G., Lau, M., & Rutström, E. (2010). Individual Discount Rates and Smoking: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Denmark. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29(5), 708-717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.06.006

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2010
Deposit Date Oct 25, 2010
Journal Journal of Economic Psychology
Print ISSN 0167-4870
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 29
Issue 5
Pages 708-717
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.06.006
Keywords Smoking, Discount rates, Risk aversion, Time inconsistency.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1514747