Abstract
OK, today I have just received as a gift something I always dreamed about, but given its cost, I never resolved to buy: a white truffle. I like it a lot, especially grated over Piedmont tagliolini (sort of egg-rich fresh pasta thinner than fettuccine). And I know that I have to eat it within a week. So, when will I eat my truffle? Tonight? Or shall I delay my consumption, so that each day I will know that there is a white truffle waiting for me in the fridge? Which option gives me more pleasure?
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, section 51
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Notes
- 1.
“The idea that such a [mathematical] investigation could have any influence upon ethical judgments of policy is one which deserves the impatience of modern economists” (Samuelson 1937).
- 2.
Cf., for example, DellaVigna (2009).
- 3.
Cf. in particular Loewenstein (2000).
- 4.
Camerer et al. (2004).
- 5.
In the table we do not consider “pathological” factors, such as drug addiction.
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Ghisellini, F., Chang, B.Y. (2018). Time and Preferences. In: Behavioral Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75205-1_7
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