We review research that measures time preferences—i.e., preferences over intertemporal tradeoffs. We distinguish between studies using financial flows, which we call “money earlier or later” (MEL) decisions and studies that use time-dated consumption/effort. Under different structural models, we show how to translate what MEL experiments directly measure (required rates of return for financial flows) into a discount function over utils. We summarize empirical regularities found in MEL studies and the predictive power of those studies. We explain why MEL choices are driven in part by some factors that are distinct from underlying time preferences.

中文翻译：

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测量时间偏好

我们回顾了衡量时间偏好的研究，即对跨期权衡的偏好。我们区分使用资金流动的研究（我们称之为“提前或稍后的金钱”（MEL）决策）和使用有时间限制的消费/努力的研究。在不同的结构模型下，我们展示了如何将 MEL 实验直接测量的内容（资金流所需的回报率）转化为效用的贴现函数。我们总结了 MEL 研究中发现的经验规律以及这些研究的预测能力。我们解释了为什么 MEL 选择部分是由一些与潜在时间偏好不同的因素驱动的。