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Deal or No Deal? Decision-making under Risk in a Large-payoff Game Show

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Author Info
Thierry Post () (Faculty of Economics, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
Guido Baltussen () (Faculty of Economics, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
Martijn van den Assem (Faculty of Economics, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)

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Abstract

The popular television game show 'Deal or No Deal' offers a unique opportunity for analyzing decision making under risk: it involves very large stakes, simple take-or-leave decisions that require minimal skill or strategy and near-certainty about the probability distribution. Based on a panel data set of the choices of contestants in all game rounds of 53 episodes from Australia and the Netherlands, we find an average Pratt-Arrow relative risk aversion (RRA) between roughly 1 and 2 for initial wealth levels between 0 and 50,000. The RRA differs substantially across the contestants and some even exhibit risk seeking behavior. The cross-sectional differences in RRA can be explained in large part by the previous outcomes experienced by the contestants during the game. Most notably, consistent with the 'break-even effect', the RRA strongly decreases following earlier losses and risk seeking arises after large losses.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Tinbergen Institute in its series Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers with number 06-009/2.

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Date of creation: 11 Jan 2006
Date of revision: 02 Feb 2006
Handle: RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20060009

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Web page: http://www.tinbergen.nl/

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Related research
Keywords: Decision making under risk Relative risk aversion break-even effect real incentives game show

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data
C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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Cited by:
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  1. Gee, C., 2007. "Risky Choice and Type-Uncertainty in "Deal or No Deal?"," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0758, Faculty of Economics (formerly DAE), University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
  2. Gauthier Lanot & Roger Hartley & Ian Walker, 2006. "Who Really Wants to be a Millionaire? Estimates of Risk Aversion from Gameshow Data," Keele Economics Research Papers KERP 2006/07, Centre for Economic Research, Keele University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Egil Matsen & Bjarne Strøm, 2006. "Joker: Choice in a simple game with large stakes," Working Paper Series 8307, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. [Downloadable!]
  4. Sjögren Lindquist, Gabriella & Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny, 2006. "Testing the rationality assumption using a design difference in the TV game show 'Jeopardy'," Working Paper Series 9/2006, Swedish Institute for Social Research. [Downloadable!]
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