Giuseppe Bertola and Anna Lo Prete: Openness, Financial Markets, and Policies: Cross-Country and Dynamic Patterns

Procrastination is captured by the tendency of many people to have high short-term discount rates but lower long-term discount rates (hyperbolic discounting). Postponing a cost, even one that generates high future benefits, is therefore attractive. So too is advancing a benefit to the present, even if this implies high future costs. This leads to outcomes such as credit card borrowing at high interest rates and unwillingness to engage in painful activities such as financial planning. Nevertheless, people with such preferences might be happy to make a binding commitment, for example to save more in the future. In the absence of...