Risky Decision Under Laboratory Deadline With Experience and Indirect Self-Selection

Abstract

Prior research has found that variation in the length of deadlines, or their presence, can affect risky choice. We study whether such results are affected if subject experience and some form of self-selection are allowed. We find that choices of experienced and self-selected subjects are immune to temporal aspects, while immunity fails if experienced subjects are not allowed self-selection opportunities. Additionally, we find that experience and self-selection jointly promote safer choice and increased task completion. Our overall evidence indicates that experience as well as self-selection may be issues of importance, particularly in conjunction.

Keywords: decision under risk, time pressure and deadlines, experience, self-selection, external validity

JEL Classification: C91, D91