I’m puzzled by your use of the word “actually” in the last paragraph. It sounds as if you’re saying you’d expect people with higher incomes to choose less money now over more money later. If so, why? I’d expect the reverse, for multiple reasons (and not only because apparently that’s what the survey shows).
I was thinking that wealthier people would have a lower level of utility associated with the additional marginal dollars they could get from waiting, so transaction costs and other disutilities would override the utility offered by having a greater number of dollars. I said “actually” only because this thinking is sort of in line with what I was discussing in my first paragraph.
I would think that if our hypothetical wealthy person was rich enough to not care all that much about an additional $20 million, they wouldn’t care enough about the initial $55 million to pick the short-term option that netted them less money.
If the utility of the dollars goes down, doesn’t the utility loss from transaction costs also go down? (Because if you care less about the money you can worry less about it. Extreme case: If I offer to give you $0 in a week, you don’t need to waste any time or effort keeping track of when I’m supposed to pay you.)
I’m puzzled by your use of the word “actually” in the last paragraph. It sounds as if you’re saying you’d expect people with higher incomes to choose less money now over more money later. If so, why? I’d expect the reverse, for multiple reasons (and not only because apparently that’s what the survey shows).
I was thinking that wealthier people would have a lower level of utility associated with the additional marginal dollars they could get from waiting, so transaction costs and other disutilities would override the utility offered by having a greater number of dollars. I said “actually” only because this thinking is sort of in line with what I was discussing in my first paragraph.
I would think that if our hypothetical wealthy person was rich enough to not care all that much about an additional $20 million, they wouldn’t care enough about the initial $55 million to pick the short-term option that netted them less money.
If the utility of the dollars goes down, doesn’t the utility loss from transaction costs also go down? (Because if you care less about the money you can worry less about it. Extreme case: If I offer to give you $0 in a week, you don’t need to waste any time or effort keeping track of when I’m supposed to pay you.)