(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Expected Utility Calibration for Continuous Distributions
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cudawp/127170.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expected Utility Calibration for Continuous Distributions

Author

Listed:
  • Just, David R.
  • Peterson, Hikaru Hanawa

Abstract

Recently, Rabin criticized the use of diminishing marginal utility in explaining risk aversion in small gambles with a mathematical theorem, which compares revealed risk averting behavior in small gambles to the risk behavior implied by expected utility theory in somewhat larger gambles, using discrete payoff distributions. To examine whether his criticism holds in more realistic risky situations, we generalize his theorem to the cases of continuous distributions and of continuous choice. The results suggest that the absolute size of the risk may not be as important as the relative size of the possible risk reduction, and that expected utility is likely a poor explanation for any short term risk response. We discuss some rules of thumb for judging the appropriateness of expected utility in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Just, David R. & Peterson, Hikaru Hanawa, 2003. "Expected Utility Calibration for Continuous Distributions," Working Papers 127170, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cudawp:127170
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.127170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/127170/files/Cornell_Dyson_wp0301.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.127170?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680.
    2. William Neilson, 2001. "Calibration results for rank-dependent expected utility," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(10), pages 1-5.
    3. Chris Starmer, 2000. "Developments in Non-expected Utility Theory: The Hunt for a Descriptive Theory of Choice under Risk," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 332-382, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Just, David R. & Zilberman, David, 2005. "Behavior, Production and Competition," Working Papers 127075, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ubc:pmicro:halevy-04-10-29-10-08-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Yoram Halevy, 2008. "Strotz Meets Allais: Diminishing Impatience and the Certainty Effect," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1145-1162, June.
    3. Zvi Safra & Uzi Segal, 2005. "Are Universal Preferences Possible? Calibration Results for Non-Expected Utility Theories," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 633, Boston College Department of Economics.
    4. Hammond, Peter J & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1033, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Croson, Rachel & Gächter, Simon, 2010. "The science of experimental economics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 122-131, January.
    6. Yoder, Jonathan K. & Ohler, Adrienne M. & Chouinard, Hayley H., 2014. "What floats your boat? Preference revelation from lotteries over complex goods," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 412-430.
    7. Ortmann, Andreas & Rydval, Ondrej, 2004. "Behavioral Game Theory, Colin F. Camerer, 2003, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, New York/Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, hardcover, 544 pages, ISBN:0691090394, $65.00," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 671-674, October.
    8. Di Caprio, Debora & Santos-Arteaga, Francisco J., 2011. "Cardinal versus ordinal criteria in choice under risk with disconnected utility ranges," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4-5), pages 588-594.
    9. Schmidt, Ulrich & Zank, Horst, 2009. "A simple model of cumulative prospect theory," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3-4), pages 308-319, March.
    10. Dorian Jullien, 2016. "Under Uncertainty, Over Time and Regarding Other People: Rationality in 3D," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-20, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    11. Aldo Montesano, 2022. "On the economic foundations of decision theory," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 563-583, October.
    12. Oscar Lau C., 2019. "Disentangling Intertemporal Substitution and Risk Aversion Under the Expected Utility Theorem," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-14, June.
    13. Olivier L'Haridon & Craig S. Webb & Horst Zank, 2021. "An Effective and Simple Tool for Measuring Loss Aversion," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2107, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    14. Neilson, William S. & Winter, Harold, 2002. "A verification of the expected utility calibration theorem," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 347-351, February.
    15. Hammond, Peter J. & Zank, Horst, 2013. "Rationality and Dynamic Consistency under Risk and Uncertainty," Economic Research Papers 270426, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    16. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    17. Jolian McHardy & Michael Reynolds & Stephen Trotter, 2012. "The Stackelberg Model as a Partial Solution to the Problem of Pricing in a Network," Working Paper series 19_12, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    18. van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Botzen, W.J.W., 2015. "Monetary valuation of the social cost of CO2 emissions: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 33-46.
    19. Janvier D. Nkurunziza, 2005. "Reputation and Credit without Collateral in Africa`s Formal Banking," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2005-02, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Stephanie Rosenkranz & Patrick W. Schmitz, 2007. "Can Coasean Bargaining Justify Pigouvian Taxation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 573-585, November.
    21. Vadim Borokhov, 2014. "On the properties of nodal price response matrix in electricity markets," Papers 1404.3678, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2015.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risk and Uncertainty;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:cudawp:127170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dacorus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.