The Beta-Delta-DELTA Sweet Spot /

When solving discrete-time consumption models with present-biased time preferences, backwards induction generates equilibria that are non-robust in the sense that policy functions are often sensitive to parameter choices, including the modeler's choice of the time-step. The current paper identi...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
1. Verfasser:
Laibson, David
Körperschaft:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Weitere Verfasser:
Maxted, Peter
Format:
Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.
Zusammenfassung:
When solving discrete-time consumption models with present-biased time preferences, backwards induction generates equilibria that are non-robust in the sense that policy functions are often sensitive to parameter choices, including the modeler's choice of the time-step. The current paper identifies a range of "sweet-spot" time-steps that (i) contains the psychologically relevant present bias horizons, and, (ii) generates numerically indistinguishable (i.e., robust) policy functions. This sweet spot includes both a computationally feasible range of discrete-time cases and the limiting continuous-time case (Harris and Laibson, 2013). Accordingly, researchers modeling present bias in buffer stock models can choose either discrete-time cases calibrated to be in the sweet spot or the analytically tractable continuous-time case; these approaches yield essentially identical policy functions.
Umfang:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Anmerkungen:
January 2023.
Schlagworte: