Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/296073 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10984
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We repeatedly elicit beliefs about the returns to study effort, in a large university course. A behavioral model of quasi-hyperbolic discounting and malleable beliefs predicts that the dynamics of beliefs mirrors the importance of exerting self-control, such that believed returns increase as the exam approaches, and drop post-exam. Exploiting variation in exam timing to control for common information shocks, we find this prediction confirmed: average believed study returns increase by about 20% over the period before the exam, and drop by about the same afterwards. Additional analyses further support the hypothesized mechanism that beliefs serve as a means of self-control.
Subjects: 
beliefs
present bias
self-control
effort
survey
JEL: 
C81
D81
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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