{
  "title": "Trading off present and future: what urgency alone cannot justify",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/arbitrer-present-futur-ce-que-urgence-ne-justifie-pas-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-05-09",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Preferring an immediate benefit is not necessarily a mistake. The difficulty arises when an approaching deadline changes the trade-off without any change in its economic rationale.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Decision-making",
  "place": {
    "name": "Lausanne",
    "region": "Vaud",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Shane Frederick, George Loewenstein and Ted O’Donoghue (2002, Journal of Economic Literature) show in their review that intertemporal choices cannot be explained by a single, stable preference for the present."
    },
    {
      "heading": "When proximity changes a preference",
      "point": "Richard Thaler (1981, Economics Letters) reports experimental findings inconsistent with a constant discount rate, notably across different delays and monetary amounts."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that a good decision always favours the long term."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence cannot settle",
      "point": "The monetary choices studied do not reproduce the full complexity of organisational investments, whose benefits may be collective, uncertain and difficult to compare."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Lausanne",
      "point": "In Lausanne, a medtech company, a higher education institution, an international sports organisation or a scale-up in the Lake Geneva region could apply the same protocol to trade-offs between immediate gains and delayed benefits."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "O’Donoghue",
      "year": "2002",
      "source": "Journal of Economic Literature"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Thaler",
      "year": "1981",
      "source": "Economics Letters"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 401,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-05-09-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/arbitrer-present-futur-ce-que-urgence-ne-justifie-pas",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/arbitrer-present-futur-ce-que-urgence-ne-justifie-pas-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/arbitrer-present-futur-ce-que-urgence-ne-justifie-pas-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/arbitrer-present-futur-ce-que-urgence-ne-justifie-pas-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/prise-de-decision/lausanne",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/lausanne",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}