Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption
PRIMARY, theory paper with three small hypothetical surveys. Adds to discounted utility a term for anticipation, defining savouring as positive utility from anticipating future consumption and dread as negative utility from contemplating the future; parameters are delta (preoccupation with the future) and alpha (vividness or imaginability), with delta assumed greater than the conventional discount rate. Survey 1: 30 undergraduates stating the most they would pay now to obtain or avoid five outcomes at six timings (immediately, 3 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, 1 year, 10 years), all hypothetical and assumed certain. Appendix 1 means as a fraction of the immediate value: kiss from the movie star of
PRIMARY, theory paper with three small hypothetical surveys. Adds to discounted utility a term for anticipation, defining savouring as positive utility from anticipating future consumption and dread as negative utility from contemplating the future; parameters are delta (preoccupation with the future) and alpha (vividness or imaginability), with delta assumed greater than the conventional discount rate. Survey 1: 30 undergraduates stating the most they would pay now to obtain or avoid five outcomes at six timings (immediately, 3 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, 1 year, 10 years), all hypothetical and assumed certain. Appendix 1 means as a fraction of the immediate value: kiss from the movie star of
Written from the full text read 2026-10-18.
What our sources record
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Loewenstein, G. (1987). Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption. The Economic Journal, 97(387), 666-684. doi:10.2307/2232929.