Doing it now or later
O'Donoghue and Rabin modelled self-control problems as preferences that overweight the present, for a person who must complete one activity. The analysis turns on whether immediate effects are costs or rewards and on whether the person is naive or sophisticated about future self-control problems. Naive people delay activities with immediate costs and complete activities with immediate rewards too early. Sophistication reduces delay but worsens early completion of rewarding activities. A small present bias can seriously harm only naive people when costs are immediate and only sophisticated people when rewards are immediate.
O'Donoghue and Rabin modelled self-control problems as preferences that overweight the present, for a person who must complete one activity. The analysis turns on whether immediate effects are costs or rewards and on whether the person is naive or sophisticated about future self-control problems. Naive people delay activities with immediate costs and complete activities with immediate rewards too early. Sophistication reduces delay but worsens early completion of rewarding activities. A small present bias can seriously harm only naive people when costs are immediate and only sophisticated people when rewards are immediate.
Written from the abstract, EconPapers (RePEc) record, 2026-11-02; citation metadata checked against Crossref.
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O'Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (1999). Doing it now or later. American Economic Review, 89(1), 103-124. doi:10.1257/aer.89.1.103 https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.89.1.103