Where Do Pro-Social Institutions Come From?

“Wang et al. found that countries and regions vary a lot more in their present bias than in their long-term discount factor.

The above says: how people in the present value rewards they expect to receive (say) 10 years into the future, is pretty similar across the world — although small differences can make a big difference in the long term through compounding. But the degree to which people want things right now, as opposed to tomorrow, varies quite dramatically.

By the way, Russia’s β is 0.21 !!!”