TY  - JOUR
AU  - Vuchinich, Rudy E
AU  - Simpson, Cathy A
TI  - Delayed Reward Discounting in Alcohol Abuse
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6410
PY  - 1998
Y2  - February 1998
DO  - 10.3386/w6410
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6410
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6410.pdf
M1  - published as Rudy E. Vuchinich, Cathy A. Simpson. "Delayed-Reward Discounting in Alcohol Abuse," in Frank J. Chaloupka, Michael Grossman, Warren K. Bickel and Henry Saffer, editors, "The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research" University of Chicago Press (1999)

AB  - This paper summarizes studies that investigated the relation between temporal discounting and alcohol consumption.  The first study compared heavy and light social drinkers, and the second study compared problem and light drinkers, on the degree to which they discounted the value of (hypothetical) amounts of money available after a series of delays.  Heavy social drinkers and problem drinkers both showed higher rates of temporal discounting than light drinkers, and this difference was stronger in the second study.  Both of these laboratory studies found that a hyperbolic function more accurately described temporal discounting than an exponential function.  A third study evaluated predictors of relapse and continued resolution in problem drinkers who attempted to quit problem drinking without treatment.  The outcome groups were distinguished by the preresolution proportions of discretionary expenditures they allocated to alcohol and savings.  The data from these studies are consistent with extending behavioral theories of intertemporal choice to characterizing the determinants of alcohol consumption; they also are consistent with more general behavioral economic and economic theories of addiction that predict a positive relation between temporal discounting and addiction.
ER  -