Time Preferences for Life-Saving Programs

This paper investigates time preferences of Russian people concerning various social life-saving programs and a social discount rate for them. Social discount rate is a tool that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of social projects. Most researchers believe that people's preferences are constant over time and that social discount rate does not depend on timing of the project. However current research in the field of behavioral economics refute these assumptions. This work demonstrates that social discount rate is not constant over time, as well as preferences of individuals. In addition , it shows that they depend on a specific social program. Each individual and society as a whole differently evaluate different types of people: the child's life and the life of a pensioner are not identical in terms of society. The existence of this inequality in preferences means that society cannot compare different social programs at a single discount rate. A social discount rate should be calculated for each of social programs for evaluation its effectiveness in terms of society. e-mail: liubovlisina@gmail.comphone: 89258216862