Time Preferences among smallholder peri-urban farmers in Ethiopia: Do time framing, risk-taking behaviour and gender differences explain impatience?

This study seeks to contribute to the literature by examining the effects of framing, the interaction between risk and time preferences, and analyze gender difference in time preference using surveys and incentivized field experiments collected from 500 Ethiopian smallholder farmers. To elicit time preference, we use a standard model of multiple price listing (MPL) time preference elicitation method where subjects are given a list of choices between sooner or delayed payments. Our sample demonstrates a high level of impatience, with a very late switching to the delayed options. An average farmer prefers a discount rate of 38% for payments delayed by four weeks. Time framing and risk preference are weakly correlated with impatience. We find women, on average, are more likely to accept delayed payments indicating low level of impatient than men. Our result may have important policy implications for better understanding of gender differences in various economic decisions such as education, health, agricultural investment and adoption of new technologies that require patience.