Editing Time preference (section)

=== Revealed preferences methods ===
Another stream of research focuses on estimating the discount rate from data on real world choices. Many economic models have looked at different financial puzzles and decisions to estimate a discount rate. Some types of data include asset purchases and pricing, high frequency consumption data, or social security payments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Jonathan |last2=Ericson |first2=Keith Marzilli |last3=Laibson |first3=David |last4=White |first4=John Myles |date=June 2020 |title=Measuring Time Preferences |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |language=en |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=299–347 |doi=10.1257/jel.20191074 |issn=0022-0515 |pmc=10489299 |pmid=37691693}}</ref> All of these situations involve financial decisions between the present and future. Therefore, one can fit an economic model to the situation, and then estimate the discount parameter.

As another example, one can infer the environmental discount rate from something like air conditioner purchases. This is because, investing in an energy efficient air conditioner saves both money and energy in the long run but requires more money upfront. This setup establishes a tradeoff between current value (money now) vs future value (savings later). One paper analyzed a survey of air conditioner purchases using a hedonic pricing method.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamamoto |first=Mitsutsugu |date=2023-06-16 |title=Estimating consumers' discount rates in energy-saving investment decisions: a comparison of revealed and stated approaches |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43546-023-00504-6 |journal=SN Business & Economics |language=en |volume=3 |issue=7 |pages=120 |doi=10.1007/s43546-023-00504-6 |issn=2662-9399|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Essentially, “the price of a good is specified as a function of a set of its attributes,” and they find that the discount rate is 13.6%.