Abstract
It is widely understood that scarcity focuses people on “here and now” problems, causing myopic, impulsive decisions. Our work challenges this basic premise and asks whether scarcity can ever lead to increased patience. We suggest that existing work that has inadvertently conflated resource scarcity with threatened needs that are temporally proximal. By disaggregating the role of scarcity and the temporal proximity of needs, we demonstrate the novel finding that scarcity can increase preferences for larger, later outcomes. Three preregistered, incentive compatible experiments demonstrate that the relationship between scarcity and intertemporal choice is more complex than previously understood. In addition to demonstrating a reversal of typical intertemporal preferences under scarcity, our findings offer a new interpretation of existing findings and suggest that responses to scarcity may be more in line with standard economic theory than currently believed.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
