The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab

Since Chen (2013), a fast-growing body of literature has documented abundant supporting evidence for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Despite this influx of research, direct causal evidence is limited. In this study, we take advantage of a unique linguistic feature of the Chinese language: speaker...

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Main Authors:	Chen, Josie I., He, Tai-Sen, Riyanto, Yohanes Eko
Other Authors:	School of Social Sciences
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	Social sciences::Economic theory::Microeconomics Time Preference Future Tense
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142990
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Institution:	Nanyang Technological University
Language:	English

id	sg-ntu-dr.10356-142990
record_format	dspace
spelling	sg-ntu-dr.10356-1429902021-01-28T08:23:51Z The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab Chen, Josie I. He, Tai-Sen Riyanto, Yohanes Eko School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Economic theory::Microeconomics Time Preference Future Tense Since Chen (2013), a fast-growing body of literature has documented abundant supporting evidence for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Despite this influx of research, direct causal evidence is limited. In this study, we take advantage of a unique linguistic feature of the Chinese language: speakers can freely choose whether or not to use the future tense when referring to a future event. This flexibility allows us to unobtrusively manipulate the use of “will” in the description of the rewards in a standard time preference task to cleanly examine its effect on intertemporal decisions. However, our results do not lend further empirical support for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Accepted version 2020-07-17T07:43:35Z 2020-07-17T07:43:35Z 2019 Journal Article Chen, J. I., He, T.-S., & Riyanto, Y. E. (2019). The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab. European Economic Review, 120, 103307-. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.103307 0014-2921 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142990 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.103307 2-s2.0-85072578924 120 1 12 en European Economic Review © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This paper was published in European Economic Review and is made available with permission of Elsevier Ltd. application/pdf
institution	Nanyang Technological University
building	NTU Library
continent	Asia
country	Singapore Singapore
content_provider	NTU Library
collection	DR-NTU
language	English
topic	Social sciences::Economic theory::Microeconomics Time Preference Future Tense
spellingShingle	Social sciences::Economic theory::Microeconomics Time Preference Future Tense Chen, Josie I. He, Tai-Sen Riyanto, Yohanes Eko The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
description	Since Chen (2013), a fast-growing body of literature has documented abundant supporting evidence for the linguistic-savings hypothesis. Despite this influx of research, direct causal evidence is limited. In this study, we take advantage of a unique linguistic feature of the Chinese language: speakers can freely choose whether or not to use the future tense when referring to a future event. This flexibility allows us to unobtrusively manipulate the use of “will” in the description of the rewards in a standard time preference task to cleanly examine its effect on intertemporal decisions. However, our results do not lend further empirical support for the linguistic-savings hypothesis.
author2	School of Social Sciences
author_facet	School of Social Sciences Chen, Josie I. He, Tai-Sen Riyanto, Yohanes Eko
format	Article
author	Chen, Josie I. He, Tai-Sen Riyanto, Yohanes Eko
author_sort	Chen, Josie I.
title	The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
title_short	The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
title_full	The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
title_fullStr	The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
title_full_unstemmed	The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
title_sort	effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab
publishDate	2020
url	https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142990
_version_	1690658275595386880

The effect of language on economic behavior : examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab

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