Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/208976 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
PhD Series No. 22.2016
Publisher: 
Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Frederiksberg
Abstract: 
This thesis consists of three independent chapters on the elicitation of individual discount rates and on the estimation of gambling prevalence in Denmark. The first chapter, “Discount Rate Sensitivity to Background Consumption and Consumption Smoothing,” studies the sensitivity of individual discount rates with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing. I use simulated choice data from standard decision tasks in time preference experiments and show that individual discount rates are sensitive to assumptions with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing if the utility function is non-linear and exogenous. However, if discount rates and the utility function are elicited jointly, discount rates are robust to assumptions on time-invariant background consumption and consumption smoothing. The analysis clarifies mixed conclusions from previous studies and indicates which elicitation methods provide robust estimates of individual discount rates.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
9788793483095
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Doctoral Thesis

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