GENETIC VARIATION IN TIME PREFERENCES

Abstract

Objective: Time preferences are important in understanding many economic phenomena ranging from an individual’s choice to procrastinate to saving patterns of a macro-economy. This paper studies the role of three genes – Retinoic Acid Receptor Alpha (RAR?), Selenium Binding Protein 1 (SELENBP1), and Adrenergic Receptor Genes (ADR) – in predicting one’s level of impatience and present bias.

Methodology: A total of 3510 Han Chinese participants from Singapore and Beijing took part in this study. Time-preferences were elicited from incentivised near-term and remote-future tasks. Sequence variation information was collected from all participants, while gene expression data was collected only for a subset of Singaporean participants.

Results: Gene expression of RAR? was found to be positively corelated with remote-future impatience and negatively correlated with present bias. Expression of SELENBP1 was found to be negatively correlated with both near-future impatience and present bias. Expression of ADRB1 (Beta-1 Adrenergic Receptor) was found to be positively correlated to both near and remote-term impatience. Additionally, a total of 6 SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) belonging to ADRA1B (Alpha-1B Adrenergic Receptor) and ADRB2 (Beta-2 Adrenergic Receptor) were found to be significantly associated with various time-preferences phenotype.