Professor Markus Prior from Princeton University visits our department and gives a talk with the title “Patient Politics? Measuring Impatience and Discounting for Politically Relevant Outcomes”.

Time: 23 October (new date!)

Abstract:
Impatient voters who discount future benefits might dissuade politicians from addressing long-term policy challenges. In six different survey samples, we observe little impatience and estimate low discount rates for politically relevant collective outcomes. These findings are unexpected because research in economics and psychology shows considerable impatience and steep discounting for individual outcomes, such as money. These insights are made possible by two innovations. First, we adapt established elicitation methods—intertemporal allocation tasks, staircase approach, and a structural measurement model—to collective outcomes involved in “sociotropic” voting. Second, to distinguish discounting as a motive for observed impatience, we control for alternative explanations for intertemporal allocations, most notably preference for continuity over time. This paper provides political science with a toolkit to study political impatience.

All are welcome. No registration needed.