How to measure time preferences in children – A comparison of two methods

We measure time preferences in a sample of 561 children aged seven to eleven years. Using a within-subject design we compare the behavior of our subjects in two distinct experimental tasks: a standard choice list with multiple decisions and a simpler time-investment-exercise requiring one decision only. We find that both measures yield very similar aggregate results, correlate significantly within subjects and can be explained by basically the same explanatory variables. Advantages and disadvantages of both measures as well as gender differences are discussed. Our findings are relevant for the design of experiments to measure time preferences.