Eliciting Time, Risk, and Social Preferences: Experimental Evidence from India

Abstract

Time, risk, and social preferences can play a major role in the development of the country. In order to explore these, we conducted a survey of 614 subjects in India. Our results based on the correlations of positive reciprocity and time preferences, trust and cognitive ability, and negative reciprocity and risk preferences suggest that Indians have different preferences compared to other countries. Similarly, the regional diversity in these preferences is found to be quite large. Thus, this indicates the need for unique implementation strategies in different regions for various governmental policies. Results based on principal component analysis (PCA) confirms that age, highest education, and cognitive ability play an important role in determining these preferences. Moreover, the regional diversities in these preferences indicate the need for unique implementation strategies in different regions for various governmental policies.