Procrastination and the Non-Monotonic Effect of Deadlines on Task Completion

Knowles, Stephen and Servátka, Maroš and Sullivan, Trudy and Genç, Murat (2021): Procrastination and the Non-Monotonic Effect of Deadlines on Task Completion.

Abstract

We conduct a field experiment to test the non-monotonic effect of deadline length on task completion. Participants are invited to complete an online survey in which a donation goes to charity. They are given either one week, one month or no deadline to respond. Responses are lowest for the one-month deadline and highest when no deadline is specified. No deadline and the one-week deadline feature a large number of early responses, while providing a one-month deadline appears to give people permission to procrastinate. If they are inattentive, they might forget to complete the task.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: deadlines; task completion; charitable tasks; charitable giving; inattention; procrastination; forgetting; field experiment
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C93 - Field Experiments; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D64 - Altruism ; Philanthropy

References

Athey, S. and G. Imbens (2017) “The Econometrics of Randomized Experiments,” Handbook of Economic Field Experiments, Vol. 1, p. 73-140.

Aumann, R. (2019) “A synthesis of behavioural and mainstream economics,” Nature Human Behavior, 3:666-670.

Damgaard, M.T. and C. Gravert (2017) “Now or never! The effect of deadlines on charitable giving: evidence from two natural field experiments”, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 66:78-87.

Ericson, K.M. (2017) “On the interaction of memory and procrastination: implications for reminders, deadlines, and empirical estimation”, Journal of the European Economic Association, 15(3):692-719.

Gneezy, U. (2003) “The W effect of incentives,” working paper (available online at https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/clalevrem/666156000000000315.htm)

Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini (2000) “Pay enough or don't pay at all.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), 791-810.

Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini (2000)“A fine is a price,” Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1),1-17.

Huck, S. and I. Rasul (2011) “Matched fundraising: evidence from a natural experiment,” Journal of Public Economics, 95:351-362.

Janakiraman, N. and L. Ordóñez (2012) “Effect of effort and deadlines on consumer product returns”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22:260-271.

Karlan, D., J.A. List and E. Shafir (2011) “Small matches and charitable giving: evidence from a natural field experiment,” Journal of Public Economics, 95:344-350.

Knowles, S. and M. Servátka (2015) “Transaction costs, the opportunity cost of time and procrastination in charitable giving,” Journal of Public Economics, 125:54-63.

Knowles, S. and Sullivan, T. (2017) “Does charity begin at home or overseas,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly”, 46(5):944-962.

O’Donoghue, T. and M. Rabin (1999) “Doing it now or later”, American Economic Review 89: 103-124.

Shu, S.B. and A. Gneezy (2010) “Procrastination of enjoyable experiences”, Journal of Marketing Research 47: 933-944.

Sonntag, A. and D.J. Zizzo (2015) “On reminder effects, drop-outs and dominance: Evidence from an online experiment on charitable giving”, PLOS One, 10(8), e0134705.

Taubinsky, D. (2014) “From intentions to actions: a model and experimental evidence of inattentive choice, mimeo (available online at http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/taubinsk/files/inattentive_choice.pdf).

Tversky, A. and E. Shafir (1992) “Choice under conflict: the dynamics of deferred decision”, Psychological Science, 3:358-361.