Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • April 2023
  • Article
  • Management Science

The Preference Survey Module: A Validated Instrument for Measuring Risk, Time, and Social Preferences

By: Armin Falk, Anke Becker, Thomas Dohmen, David B. Huffman and Uwe Sunde
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:16
ShareBar

Abstract

Incentivized choice experiments are a key approach to measuring preferences in economics but are also costly. Survey measures are a low-cost alternative but can suffer from additional forms of measurement error due to their hypothetical nature. This paper seeks to leverage the strengths of both approaches by proposing a new survey module on risk aversion, time discounting, trust, altruism, positive and negative reciprocity, in which survey items are selected based on ability to predict choices in corresponding, incentivized experiments. The methodology and results provided in the paper can also potentially pro-vide a model for researchers who have specific requirements and want to design their own modules.

Keywords

Survey Validation; Experiment; Preference Measurement; Surveys; Economics; Behavior; Measurement and Metrics

Citation

Falk, Armin, Anke Becker, Thomas Dohmen, David B. Huffman, and Uwe Sunde. "The Preference Survey Module: A Validated Instrument for Measuring Risk, Time, and Social Preferences." Management Science 69, no. 4 (April 2023): 1935–1950.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Anke Becker

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    ELCA's Series A

    By: Anke Becker, Ray Kluender and William R. Kerr
    • Economics Letters

    Tabulated Nonsense? Testing the Validity of the Ethnographic Atlas

    By: Duman Bahrami-Rad, Anke Becker and Joseph Henrich
    • May 2020
    • AEA Papers and Proceedings

    Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences

    By: Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk
More from the Authors
  • ELCA's Series A By: Anke Becker, Ray Kluender and William R. Kerr
  • Tabulated Nonsense? Testing the Validity of the Ethnographic Atlas By: Duman Bahrami-Rad, Anke Becker and Joseph Henrich
  • Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences By: Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College