You'd take £100 now over £110 next week, but not £100 in a year over £110 later

Classical economics assumes people discount future rewards at a steady, consistent rate. Behavioral economists found the opposite: people are far more impatient about delays starting today than about identical delays further out, a pattern called hyperbolic discounting. It explains why the same person can rationally plan to save and exercise next month, then reliably fail to when next month arrives.

— David Laibson, Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting — Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1997

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