Behavioral Biases Are Temporally Stable

70 Pages Posted: 9 Nov 2020

See all articles by Victor Stango

Victor Stango

UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth College; Innovations for Poverty Action; Jameel Poverty Action Lab; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 19, 2020

Abstract

Social scientists often consider temporal stability when assessing the usefulness of a construct and its measures, but whether behavioral biases display such stability is relatively unknown. We estimate stability for 25 biases, in a nationally representative sample, using repeated elicitation three years apart. Bias level indicators are largely stable in the aggregate and within-person. Within-person inter-temporal rank correlations imply moderate stability and increase dramatically when using other biases as instrumental variables. Additional results reinforce three key inferences: biases are stable, accounting for classical measurement error in bias elicitation data is important, and eliciting multiple measures of multiple biases is valuable.

JEL Classification: C36, C81, D90, E70

Suggested Citation

Stango, Victor and Zinman, Jonathan, Behavioral Biases Are Temporally Stable (September 19, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3695593 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3695593

Victor Stango

UC Davis Graduate School of Management ( email )

One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
United States

Jonathan Zinman (Contact Author)

Dartmouth College ( email )

Hanover, NH 03755
United States
603-646-0075 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.dartmouth.edu/jzinman/

Innovations for Poverty Action

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United States

Jameel Poverty Action Lab

E60-246
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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