Patience and time consistency in collective decisions

• Published in: Experimental economics : a journal of the Economic Science Association Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 181 - 208
• Main Authors: Denant-Boemont, Laurent, Diecidue, Enrico, l’Haridon, Olivier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2017; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag (Germany)
• Subjects: Behavioral/Experimental Economics; Bias; Business administration; Coordination; Decision making; Discount rates; Economic models; Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods; Economics; Economics and Finance; Experiments; Game Theory; Group dynamics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information sharing; Longitudinal studies; Microeconomics; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Original Paper; Psychological aspects; Social and Behav. Sciences; Studies; Time; United States > US; Dynamic consistency; D03; Present-bias; D90; C92; Time preferences; Group decisions; Time Preferences; Group Decisions; Dynamic Consistency; present-bias
• ISSN: 1386-4157; 1573-6938; 1573-6938
• DOI: 10.1007/s10683-016-9481-4

We present experimental evidence regarding individual and group decisions over time. Static and longitudinal methods are combined to test four conditions on time preferences: impatience, stationarity, age independence, and dynamic consistency. Decision making in groups should favor coordination via communication about voting intentions. We find that individuals are neither patient nor consistent, that groups are both patient and highly consistent, and that information exchange between participants helps groups converge to stable decisions. Finally we provide additional evidence showing that our results are driven by the specific role of groups and not by either repeated choices or individual preferences when choosing for other subjects.