Heterogeneous Patience and the Term Structure of Real Interest Rates
研究异质性时间偏好如何通过平均效应和一般均衡消费时机效应影响实际利率，并导致反向期限结构，提醒资产价格可能反映异质性而非非标准偏好。
Heterogeneous time preference has a profound impact on the wealth distribution and therefore on equilibrium asset prices. I identify two distinct effects on interest rates: an averaging effect due to Jensen’s inequality and a general equilibrium consumption timing effect. The averaging effect decreases and the timing effect increases real interest rates, and both effects induce an inverse term structure. More fundamentally, the model shows that asset prices need to be interpreted with caution. Evidence apparently pointing to non-standard preferences may simply be the result of heterogeneity.