Delay and social discounting of losses

The present project addresses two out of three basic pillars of the economic concept of man, i.e. decision maker’s behavioural orientation and the degree of self-control. Specifically, exploration of the decision maker’s behaviour and self-control in the context of losses will broaden our general knowledge on human economic behaviour, and it will constitute a step in advancing the economic concept of man in the subfield of decision making under losses.

In concrete terms, the present project aims to address the following open questions posed in relevant literature on behavioural economics (see, e.g., Brañas-Garza et al., 2010; Frederick et al., 2002; Gowdy et al., 2013; Hendrikse, 2003; Myerson et al., 2017; Urminsky and Zauberman, 2015):

1. Does a preference reversal effect occur in the delay discounting of losses?
2. Does a preference reversal effect occur in the social discounting of losses?
3. Is a delay discounting of losses hyperbolic?
4. Is a social discounting of losses hyperbolic?
5. How do delay and social discounting of losses interact?
6. How do the interactions between delay and social discounting of losses affect a decision maker’s behaviour in experimental games?