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Probabilistic sophistication, second order stochastic dominance and uncertainty aversion

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  • Cerreia-Vioglio, Simone
  • Maccheroni, Fabio
  • Marinacci, Massimo
  • Montrucchio, Luigi

Abstract

We study the interplay of probabilistic sophistication, second order stochastic dominance and uncertainty aversion, three fundamental notions in choice under uncertainty. In particular, our main result, Theorem 2, characterizes uncertainty averse preferences that are probabilistically sophisticated, as well as uncertainty averse preferences that satisfy second order stochastic dominance. As a byproduct, Proposition 2 highlights a fundamental tension between probabilistic sophistication/second order stochastic dominance and uncertainty aversion in the presence of nontrivial unambiguous events.

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  • Cerreia-Vioglio, Simone & Maccheroni, Fabio & Marinacci, Massimo & Montrucchio, Luigi, 2012. "Probabilistic sophistication, second order stochastic dominance and uncertainty aversion," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 271-283.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:mateco:v:48:y:2012:i:5:p:271-283
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2012.05.005
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Simone Cerreia-Vioglio & Lars Peter Hansen & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci, 2020. "Making Decisions under Model Misspecification," Papers 2008.01071, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    2. Tommaso Denti & Luciano Pomatto, 2022. "Model and Predictive Uncertainty: A Foundation for Smooth Ambiguity Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(2), pages 551-584, March.
    3. Matthias Lang, 2017. "First-Order and Second-Order Ambiguity Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(4), pages 1254-1269, April.
    4. Faro, José Heleno, 2015. "Variational Bewley preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 699-729.
    5. Grant, Simon & Rich, Patricia & Stecher, Jack, 2022. "Bayes and Hurwicz without Bernoulli," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Paolo Ghirardato & Daniele Pennesi, 2023. "Randomizing without randomness," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 75(4), pages 1009-1037, May.
    7. Tomasz, Strzalecki, 2011. "Probabilistic sophistication and variational preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(5), pages 2117-2125, September.
    8. Stanca, Lorenzo, 2020. "A simplified approach to subjective expected utility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 151-160.
    9. Liebrich, Felix-Benedikt & Svindland, Gregor, 2019. "Efficient allocations under law-invariance: A unifying approach," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 28-45.
    10. Aurélien Baillon & Han Bleichrodt & Zhenxing Huang & Rogier Potter van Loon, 2017. "Measuring ambiguity attitude: (Extended) multiplier preferences for the American and the Dutch population," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 269-281, June.
    11. Sosung Baik & Sung-Ha Hwang, 2022. "Revenue Comparisons of Auctions with Ambiguity Averse Sellers," Papers 2211.12669, arXiv.org.
    12. Cerreia-Vioglio, Simone & Maccheroni, Fabio & Marinacci, Massimo & Montrucchio, Luigi, 2013. "Ambiguity and robust statistics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(3), pages 974-1049.
      • Simone Cerreia-Vioglio & Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & Luigi Montrucchio, 2011. "Ambiguity and Robust Statistics," Working Papers 382, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Model misspecification; Probabilistic sophistication; Second order stochastic dominance; Subjective expected utility; Unambiguous events; Uncertainty aversion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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