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The use of behavioral insights and experimental methods has recently gained momentum among health policy-makers. There is a tendency, however, to reduce behavioral insights applications in health to “nudges,” and to reduce experiments in health to “randomized controlled trials” (RCTs). We argue that there is much more to behavioral insights and experimental methods in health economics than just nudges and RCTs. First, there is a broad and rich array of complementary experimental methods spanning the lab to the field, and all of them could prove useful in health economics. Second, there are a host of challenges in health economics, policy, and management where the application of behavioral insights and experimental methods is timely and highly promising. We illustrate this point by describing applications of experimental methods and behavioral insights to one specific topic of fundamental relevance for health research and policy: the experimental elicitation and econometric estimation of risk and time preferences. We start by reviewing the main methods of measuring risk and time preferences in health. We then focus on the “behavioral econometrics” approach to jointly elicit and estimate risk and time preferences, and we illustrate its state-of-the-art applications to health.

Investigates time as a factor that influences consumer preferences for innovative technological services such as the Internet. Specifically, the case of consumer adoption of the Internet for home use is explored. Examines the effect of time of adoption of Internet based services on preferences at the individual consumer level. The key research question is “What is the effect of time of adoption on consumer preferences for a technological service such as the Internet?” The primary contribution of this research is to demonstrate that existing time preference frameworks, previously applied to consumer durable products, can also be applied to technological service innovations, such as the Internet. An empirical examination is conducted using data from a survey of consumers in the initial stages of Internet adoption.

Behavioral economic analysis of health-related behavior is a potentially useful approach to study and control non-communicable diseases. The purpose of this paper is to explore the time preferences of individuals and its impact on obesity in an adult population of Iran.

A structured questionnaire was completed by 792 individuals who were randomly selected from the participants of an ongoing national Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in IrAN cohort study in West of Iran. The quasi-hyperbolic discounting model was used to estimate the parameters of time preferences and a probit regression model was used to explore the correlation between obesity and time preferences.

There was a statistically significant correlation between obesity and both the long-run patience and present-biased preferences of participants. Individuals with a low level of long-run patience were 10.2 percentage points more likely to be obese compared to individuals with a high level of long-run patience. The probability of being obese increased by 11 percentage points in present-biased individuals compared to future biased individuals.

The long-run patience and time inconsistent preferences were significant determinants of obesity. Considering the time-inconsistent preferences in the development of policies to change obesity-related behavior among adults might increase the success rate of the interventions.

One of the fundamental tasks in optimal insurance design is mitigating the moral hazard effects inherent in insurance mechanisms. Empirically, relatively little is known about how individual-level time preferences affect selection of insurance options. We use several waves of the Health and Retirement Survey to explore the relationship between revealed time preferences at the individual level and the selection of insurance options for both the under-age-65 population and the Medicare-eligible population. Our results suggest that time preferences are not likely to be fixed across the life cycle, and that they appear to be important predictors of health insurance decisions.

Examines consumer preferences for forthcoming technological innovations. Studies consumer response to different levels of technology over time. Looks at preferences for existing and intermediate technologies when future ones are expected. Focuses on technological consumer durables that are expected to evolve over time. The primary contributions of this research are: an understanding of how consumer preferences for a technology are affected by the time of adoption; an understanding of the value to consumers of obtaining different levels of a technology, at different points in time; and the utilization of parsimonious indices to assess consumer response to different levels of technology over time. An empirical examination is conducted for high definition television (HDTV). Using survey data, the study explores consumer preferences for HDTV, and for interim television technologies. Managerial implications to aid product design, and the timing of introduction of evolving technological innovations, are also discussed.

The authors begin with an admittedly simplistic statement: “civilization” is best represented by the increased availability of utility providing goods and services. In other words, civilization is synonymous with economic development. The purpose of this paper is to concern three questions. First, how does civilization develop? Second, what is time preference and how does it affect the development of civilization, or what the authors call the “process of civilization.” Third, what factors affect time preference, and how do changes in time preference affect this civilizing process? Through these three questions, the authors provide the theoretical answer to why civilization developed, instead of the more common historical how civilization actually developed.

The authors survey a variety of theories of civilization, and then develop an alternative that answers the question of “how civilization develops” rather than the more common “how did civilization develop.”

Endogenous reductions in time preference are determined to be the best explanation of the spark that instigates the process of civilization. It also allows for other approaches to fall under its umbrella, thus providing one general theory in place of the current-specific theories.

The value lies in the creation of a general theory of civilization, against which other theories looking at specific factors can be gauged.

Large-scale farm management in China has developed rapidly in recent years. Large-scale farmers face substantial operating risks, requiring extensive price risk management. However, the agricultural insurance and futures markets in China are incomplete. This study aims to analyze the price-risk-management behaviors of large-scale farmers under incomplete market conditions, with a focus on the interconnections between large scale farmers' subjective preferences (risk preferences, time preferences), liquidity constraints and their price risk management.

The authors construct an analysis framework to reveal the impact of large-scale farmers' risk preferences, time preferences and liquidity conditions on their price-risk-management behaviors under incomplete market conditions. Using data from field surveys and subjective preference experiments involving 409 large-scale grain farmers in China, an empirical analysis was conducted using the bivariate probit model.

The results show that risk-averse farmers will use risk transfer (such as contract farming) and risk diversification (such as multi-period sales) to avoid price risk. However, farmers subject to liquidity constraints and strong time preferences will not choose risk diversification, and the interaction between time preferences and liquidity constraints will strengthen this decision. The larger the farm-management scale, the greater the impact.

The authors focus on rapidly developed large-scale farm management in China. Appropriate price risk management is required by large-scale farmers due to their substantial operating risks. Considering the incomplete conditions of agricultural insurance and futures markets, the results of this study will help identify behavioral characteristics of large-scale farmers and optimize their price-risk-management strategies, further stabilizing large-scale farm management.

Böhm-Bawerk’s time preference approach had significant importance among many other theories of interest. His assertion based on inherent human nature and the distinction he made between the positive and normative aspects of interest were remarkably authentic. As it is assumed that any efficient evaluation, judgment or regulation on the legitimacy of interest has to consider the theory of time preference, especially Böhm-Bawerk’s approach, the paper aimed to examine the Islamic economists’ response to the time preference theory of interest.

The paper presents Böhm-Bawerk’s time preference theory of interest. Then, it evaluates the Islamic economists’ views on the concepts of the time value of money and time preference qualitatively by scrutinizing the relevant literature.

It is observed that there is not any proper response of Islamic economists to the assertions of the causes of time preference. Responding to such challenges requires an approach that is mostly developed in the positive domain.

Although it is evident that interest is regarded as destructive in Islamic economics, the consideration is primarily normative. However, a convincing assertion also requires to be justified in the positive domain. Empirical works are exhibiting the problems with interest-based transactions. Besides, this paper raises the need for theoretical expositions of Islamic economists in response to the interest theories, which claim that the existence of interest is inevitable.

This chapter conducts a systematic comparison of behavioral economics’s challenges to the standard accounts of economic behaviors within three dimensions: under risk, over time, and regarding other people. A new perspective on two underlying methodological issues, i.e., inter-disciplinarity and the positive/normative distinction, is proposed by following the entanglement thesis of Hilary Putnam, Vivian Walsh, and Amartya Sen. This thesis holds that facts, values, and conventions have inter-dependent meanings in science which can be understood by scrutinizing formal and ordinary language uses. The goal is to provide a broad and self-contained picture of how behavioral economics is changing the mainstream of economics.

The purpose of this paper is to maximize the expected revenue of the outpatient department considering patient preferences and choices.

Patient preference refers to the preferred physician and time slot that patients hold before asking for appointments. Patient choice is the appointment decision the patient made after receiving a set of options from the scheduler. The relationship between patient choices and preferences is explored. A dynamic programming (DP) model is formulated to optimize appointment scheduling with patient preferences and choices. The DP model is transformed to an equivalent linear programming (LP) model. A decomposition method is proposed to eliminate the number of variables. A column generation algorithm is used to resolve computation problem of the resulting LP model.

Numerical studies show the benefit of multiple options provided, and that the proposed algorithm is efficient and accurate. The effects of the booking horizon and arrival rates are studies. A policy about how to make use of the information of patient preferences is compared to other naive polices. Experiments show that more revenue can be expected if patient preferences and choices are considered.

This paper proposes a framework for appointment scheduling problem in outpatient departments. It is concluded that more revenue can be achieved if more choices are provided for patients to choose from and patient preferences are considered. Additionally, an appointment decision can be made timely after receiving patient preference information. Therefore, the proposed model and policies are convenient tools applicable to an outpatient department.