Bias in Wages and Time Preferences (An Application of Behavioral Economics)

Abstract

The main goal of this article is an applied investigation of one of the types of biases caused by overconfidence, under the heading of bias in expected relative wage (or individual overplacement) and its relationship with time preferences (in the form of a proxy of people's patience) based on the Friehe & Pannenberg (2020) method. The data gathering tool of this investigation has been a two-stage questionnaire. 204 staff and faculty members of Ilam university completed the questions related to the questionnaire in two stages. Based on the ordinary least squares and semi-parametric model, the relationship between bias in wage and time preferences was examined in four stages. The results of research models in four stages showed that there is a negative and significant correlation between bias in expected relative wage (or bias in the distribution of the relative wage of people of the same age-peers) and time preferences. This means that people who are more patient, will have less bias (overplacement) on average. Examining the impact of current relative wage on bias showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between bias and current relative wage; This means that the current relative wage of individuals is not effective in reducing bias, and the higher the individual's current relative wage, the individual's bias will be greater. Also, the results showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between bias and extraversion, a negative and significant correlation between bias and neuroticism and a negative and significant correlation between bias and agreeableness.

Keywords

• bias in wages
• time preferences
• ordinary least squares
• semi-parametric
• behavioral economics