Physical activity and time preference.

This paper investigates the link between time preference (whether a person is more present or future oriented) and time spent participating in physical activity. Using data on time spent engaged in physical activity from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 cohort, 2006 wave, where time preference is proxied by the expected share of money saved from a hypothetical $1000 cash prize. I find that time preference is a significant predictor of the amount of time spent participating in both vigorous and light-to-moderate physical activity for women and vigorous physical activity for men. The results are robust to various sample restrictions and alternative measures of time preference. The findings in this paper fill in a gap in the relationship between time preference and body composition by examining one of the pathways through which the former might affect the latter using a large, nationally representative dataset.