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Stuff goes wrong, so act now

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Michala Iben Riis-Vestergaard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. michalar@princeton.eduhaushofer@princeton.eduhttp://www.princeton.edu/joha/
Johannes Haushofer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. michalar@princeton.eduhaushofer@princeton.eduhttp://www.princeton.edu/joha/

Abstract

Pepper & Nettle make an ambitious and compelling attempt to isolate a common cause of what they call the behavioral constellation of deprivation. We agree with the authors that limited control can indeed help explain part of the difference in observed present-oriented behavior between the poor and the rich. However, we suggest that mortality risk is not the primary mechanism leading to this apparent impatience.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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