Choice reversal without temptation: A dynamic experiment on time preferences

We study intertemporal choices through an experiment run over multiple dates and we show that intertemporal behavior is affected by additional drivers beyond impatience and present-biased preferences. By eliciting a subject’s plan and tracking its implementation over time, this dynamic design helps our understanding of time inconsistency through the identification and measurement of three notions of choice reversal in intertemporal behavior. In the experiment, there is widespread choice reversal and demand for flexibility. Neither the usual exponential nor hyperbolic discounting models can account for the observed behavior.