(with Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová and Ian Levely)

Abstract: We study two psychological channels through which poverty may increase impatient behaviour – an effect on time preference and reduced attention. We measured discount rates among farmers in Uganda who made decisions when to enjoy entertainment instead of working. We find that experimentally induced thoughts about poverty-related problems increase the preference to consume entertainment early and delay work. Using monitoring tools similar to eye tracking, a novel feature for this subject pool, coupled with a range of choice-based proxies of confusion, we show this effect is unlikely to be driven by less careful decision-making process.