Economics research seminar: Harold Cuffe, Victoria University of Wellington NZ

Research topic: Risk and Time Preference Heterogeneity Across U.S. Counties 

(Co-authors: Christopher G. Gibbs (U Syd), Isaac Swensen (Montana State Univ), Eric Ulm (Victoria University of Wellington)) 

Harold Cuffe, Victoria University of Wellington NZ

Topic

Risk and Time Preference Heterogeneity Across U.S. Counties 

abstract

We apply the methods of experimentalists to the macroeconomic study of preferences using data from a repeated and ongoing national quasi-experiment. Specifically, we frame the panel of observed daily consumption decisions for two national lotteries as the collective outcome of a conceptual multiple price list quasi-experiment that identifies a county measure of risk and time preferences. We then adapt the methods of Anderson, Harrison, Lau and Rutström (2006) to estimate aggregate time and risk preference parameters for nearly 750 U.S. counties in 13 states. We show that county preferences predict county-level variation in behaviors that depend on risk and time preferences (e.g. education and health).

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