In the bias and wisdom in decision making course that I’ve taken this semester, we featured the topic intertemperal choice today. It’s pretty cliché a topic that, well, usually everything starts with this function: $$ U(\mathbf x) = u(x_0) + \beta\sum_{t = 1}^\infty\sigma^t u(x_t). $$ But something interesting came up today. It’s called the growth curve. Consider choosing from various ways of growing over time - some trajectory is log-like while others can be exponential-like. It’s a trade off between short term fast increment against long term “snow ball” effect. For examples, consider the most extreme cases, like athlete (short term career, income is pretty much log-like) compared against docter (long term career growth whlie slow at the beginning).
Indeed! It’s an extended form of intertemporal choice, evaluating on a class of functions (feasible career trajectories) rather than singular action points. Never thought of this before and glad to learn.