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Aversion to One Risk in the Presence of Others

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  • Pratt, John W
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    Abstract

    The more risk-averse of two individuals need not have the smaller certainty equivalent for a risk (x" tilda") if another risk or combination of risks (w" tilda") is present. It is shown that he must, however, if either individual's conditional certainty equivalent for (x" tilda") is increasing in w. For independent risks, this condition follows immediately if either individual is decreasingly risk-averse, giving a natural proof of a known result. Another short proof of this result and necessary and sufficient conditions in the independent case are given. For multivariate utilities, the corresponding results do not hold, but it is proved simply that any mixture of decreasingly risk-averse utilities is decreasingly risk-averse. Also touched upon are risk aversion's relation to generalized means, concave composition, risk sharing, and interest rates, the application of the results to discounting under uncertainty and selection of investment level, and their connection to singly crossing distributions, noise, and dominance. Copyright 1988 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Springer in its journal Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.

    Volume (Year): 1 (1988)
    Issue (Month): 4 (December)
    Pages: 395-413

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    Handle: RePEc:kap:jrisku:v:1:y:1988:i:4:p:395-413

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    Cited by:
    1. Moawia Alghalith, 2011. "Adding one risk to another: generalizing the unavoidable (background) risk," REVISTA DE ECONOMÍA DEL ROSARIO, UNIVERSIDAD DEL ROSARIO.
    2. Miles S. Kimball, 1991. "Standard Risk Aversion," NBER Technical Working Papers 0099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Geiger, Gebhard, 2008. "An axiomatic account of status quo-dependent non-expected utility: Pragmatic constraints on rational choice under risk," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 116-142, March.
    4. Paulsen, Jostein, 1995. "Optimal per claim deductibility in insurance with the possibility of risky investments," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 133-147, October.
    5. Gollier, Christian & John W. PRATT, 1993. "Weak Proper Risk Aversion And The Tempering Effect of Background Risk," Working Papers 018, Risk and Insurance Archive.
    6. Michel Denuit & Louis Eeckhoudt & Mario Menegatti, 2011. "Correlated risks, bivariate utility and optimal choices," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 39-54, January.
    7. Moawia Alghalith, 2008. "Hedging and production decisions under uncertainty: A survey," Papers 0810.0917, arXiv.org.
    8. Gregor Dorfleitner & Michael Krapp, 2007. "On multiattributive risk aversion: some clarifying results," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 47-63, April.
    9. Deelstra, Griselda & Grasselli, Martino & Koehl, Pierre-Francois, 1999. "Conditional dominance criteria: definition and application to risk-management," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 295-306, December.
    10. Geiger, Gebhard, 2002. "On the statistical foundations of non-linear utility theory: The case of status quo-dependent preferences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 449-465, January.
    11. Lajeri-Chaherli, Fatma, 2003. "Partial derivatives, comparative risk behavior and concavity of utility functions," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 81-99, August.
    12. Donatella Baiardi & Mario Menegatti, 2011. "Pigouvian tax, abatement policies and uncertainty on the environment," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 221-251, July.
    13. Miles Kimball & Philippe Weil, 1992. "Precautionary Saving and Consumption Smoothing Across Time and Possibilities," NBER Working Papers 3976, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Moawia, Alghalith, 2009. "Theory of the firm under multiple uncertainties," MPRA Paper 19320, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Finkelshtain, Israel & Kella, Offer & Scarsini, Marco, 1999. "On risk aversion with two risks," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 239-250, March.
    16. Gelles, Gregory M. & Mitchell, Douglas W., 2002. "Increasingly mean-seeking utility functions and n-asset portfolios," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 911-919.
    17. Donald C., Rudow, 2005. "Preferences and Increased Risk Aversion under a General Framework of Stochastic Dominance," MPRA Paper 41191, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jun 2005.

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