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A Bayesian Approach to Uncertainty Aversion

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Author Info
Feltkamp, Vincent
Halevy, Yoram

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Abstract

The Ellsberg Paradox demonstrates that people's belief over uncertain events might not be representable by subjective probability. We show that if a risk averse decision maker, who has a well defined Bayesian prior, perceives an Ellsberg type decision problem as possibly composed of a bundle of several positively correlated problems - she will be uncertainty averse. We generalize this argument and derive sufficient conditions for uncertainty aversion.

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Paper provided by Microeconomics.ca Website in its series Micro Theory Working Papers with number halevy-04-02-13-07-48-37.

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Date of creation: 13 Feb 2004
Date of revision: 08 Jun 2008
Handle: RePEc:ubc:pmicro:halevy-04-02-13-07-48-37

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Related research
Keywords: Ellsberg Paradox; rule rationality; ambiguity aversion; risk aversionm subjective probability; reduction of compound lotteries;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Halevy, Yoram & Ozdenoren, Emre, 2008. "Uncertainty and Compound Lotteries: Calibration," Micro Theory Working Papers yoram_halevy-2008-7, Microeconomics.ca Website, revised 17 Jun 2008. [Downloadable!]
  2. Rick Harbaugh, 2005. "Prospect Theory or Skill Signaling?," Working Papers 2005-06, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
  3. Pierre Fleckinger, 2007. "On Multiagent Moral Hazard under Technological Uncertainty," Working Papers hal-00240716_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  4. Halevy, Yoram, 2005. "Ellsberg Revisited: an Experimental Study," Micro Theory Working Papers halevy-05-07-26-11-51-13, Microeconomics.ca Website, revised 07 Jun 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Alfred Müller & Marco Scarsini, 2002. "Even Risk-Averters may Love Risk," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 81-99, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. 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. [Downloadable!]
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