Seminar: Naivete and sophistication about self-control
Dr Sarah Dahmann from the University of Sydney will be offering insights into ‘Naïveté and sophistication about self-control: Empirical evidence’.
This paper proposes and implements a novel empirical approach to classify individuals as time-consistent, naïve, or sophisticated regarding their self-control capacity. Using information on individuals’ ideal, predicted, and realized change in body weight over a one-year-horizon, our approach is easy to elicit and virtually applies to the entire population. Bringing this approach to nationally representative survey data, we expand the literature in three ways: First, our classification results complement the theoretical discussion about time-inconsistent decision-making. They indicate that the underlying assumption that sophisticates and naïfs differ only in their awareness but not in their level of self-control, is not innocuous. More severe self-control problems appear to go hand in hand with higher awareness. Second, investigating the consequences of self-control in a rich set of life outcomes, we find that self-control problems are associated with lower participation in behaviours that are initially costly but beneficial in the long term (procrastination), like educational investments and exercising to improve health status. For behaviours involving immediate benefits at future costs such as smoking or heavy drinking, our empirical results are more ambiguous. Third, sophistication (partly) compensates for the negative consequences of low self-control – resulting in a higher welfare for sophisticates than for naïfs. In addition, sophisticates appear to take up more commitment devices to effectively manage their self-control problems.
Sarah received her PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2016 and is now a Research Fellow at The University of Sydney, School of Economics, a Fellow of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, and a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). Her research fields are education, labour, and health economics. She is primarily interested in the human development of adolescents and young adults, focusing particularly on the formation of human capital, mental health, intergenerational mobility, and socioeconomic disadvantage. In her work, she applies microeconometric techniques to large administrative and survey-based data. Her current research focuses on the determinants of skill formation, the economic consequences of childhood disadvantage, the impacts of education and welfare policies, and the importance of mental health and self-control for economic behavior. In a three-year Linkage Project grant from the Australian Research Council she will study the causes, pathways, and consequences of intergenerational persistence in welfare receipt.
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Event Details
- Date:
- 11 May 2020 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- This seminar will take place via Zoom - please email shannon.stanwell@monash.edu to register
- Categories:
- Health Economics
Description
Dr Sarah Dahmann from the University of Sydney will be offering insights into ‘Naïveté and sophistication about self-control: Empirical evidence’.
This paper proposes and implements a novel empirical approach to classify individuals as time-consistent, naïve, or sophisticated regarding their self-control capacity. Using information on individuals’ ideal, predicted, and realized change in body weight over a one-year-horizon, our approach is easy to elicit and virtually applies to the entire population. Bringing this approach to nationally representative survey data, we expand the literature in three ways: First, our classification results complement the theoretical discussion about time-inconsistent decision-making. They indicate that the underlying assumption that sophisticates and naïfs differ only in their awareness but not in their level of self-control, is not innocuous. More severe self-control problems appear to go hand in hand with higher awareness. Second, investigating the consequences of self-control in a rich set of life outcomes, we find that self-control problems are associated with lower participation in behaviours that are initially costly but beneficial in the long term (procrastination), like educational investments and exercising to improve health status. For behaviours involving immediate benefits at future costs such as smoking or heavy drinking, our empirical results are more ambiguous. Third, sophistication (partly) compensates for the negative consequences of low self-control – resulting in a higher welfare for sophisticates than for naïfs. In addition, sophisticates appear to take up more commitment devices to effectively manage their self-control problems.
Sarah received her PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2016 and is now a Research Fellow at The University of Sydney, School of Economics, a Fellow of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, and a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). Her research fields are education, labour, and health economics. She is primarily interested in the human development of adolescents and young adults, focusing particularly on the formation of human capital, mental health, intergenerational mobility, and socioeconomic disadvantage. In her work, she applies microeconometric techniques to large administrative and survey-based data. Her current research focuses on the determinants of skill formation, the economic consequences of childhood disadvantage, the impacts of education and welfare policies, and the importance of mental health and self-control for economic behavior. In a three-year Linkage Project grant from the Australian Research Council she will study the causes, pathways, and consequences of intergenerational persistence in welfare receipt.
Find out more about CHE seminar series and guest speakers.