IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/genrir/v43y2018i1d10.1057_s10713-018-0029-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the properties of high-order non-monetary measures for risks

Author

Listed:
  • Christophe Courbage

    (University of Applied Sciences Western Swizterland (HES-SO))

  • Henri Loubergé

    (University of Geneva)

  • Béatrice Rey

    (GATE UMR 5824, Univ Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2)

Abstract

This paper investigates how welfare losses for facing high-order risk increases change when the risk environment of the decision maker is altered. To that aim, we define the nth-order utility premium as a measure of pain associated with facing the passage of one risk to a more severe one and we examine some of its properties. Changes in risk are expressed through the concept of stochastic dominance of order n. The paper investigates more particularly welfare changes of merging increases in risk, first ignoring background risks, then taking them into account. Merging increases in risk may be beneficial or not, depending on whether background risks are considered and how. The paper also provides conditions on individual preferences for superadditivity of the nth-order utility premium. The results confirm the importance and usefulness of two analytical concepts: mixed risk aversion and risk apportionment.

Suggested Citation

  • Christophe Courbage & Henri Loubergé & Béatrice Rey, 2018. "On the properties of high-order non-monetary measures for risks," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 43(1), pages 77-94, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:genrir:v:43:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1057_s10713-018-0029-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s10713-018-0029-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s10713-018-0029-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s10713-018-0029-8?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cary Deck & Harris Schlesinger, 2010. "Exploring Higher Order Risk Effects," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 77(4), pages 1403-1420.
    2. Louis Eeckhoudt & Harris Schlesinger, 2006. "Putting Risk in Its Proper Place," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 280-289, March.
    3. Eeckhoudt, Louis & Schlesinger, Harris & Tsetlin, Ilia, 2009. "Apportioning of risks via stochastic dominance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 994-1003, May.
    4. Jean, William H, 1980. "The Geometric Mean and Stochastic Dominance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(1), pages 151-158, March.
    5. Eeckhoudt, L. & Gollier, C., 1998. "Which Shape for the Cost Curve of Risk?," Papers 98.490, Toulouse - GREMAQ.
    6. Menegatti, Mario, 2011. "The risk premium and the effects of risk on agents utility," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 89-94, June.
    7. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    8. Eeckhoudt, Louis & Schlesinger, Harris, 2009. "On the utility premium of Friedman and Savage," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 46-48, October.
    9. Christophe Courbage & Béatrice Rey, 2010. "On Non‐Monetary Measures In The Face Of Risks And The Signs Of The Derivatives," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 295-304, July.
    10. Huang, James & Stapleton, Richard, 2015. "The utility premium of Friedman and Savage, comparative risk aversion, and comparative prudence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 34-36.
    11. Sebastian Ebert, 2013. "Moment characterization of higher-order risk preferences," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 74(2), pages 267-284, February.
    12. Christophe Courbage & Béatrice Rey, 2010. "On Non-Monetary Measures In The Face Of Risks And The Signs Of The Derivatives," Post-Print halshs-03353474, HAL.
    13. Li, Jingyuan & Liu, Liqun, 2014. "The monetary utility premium and interpersonal comparisons," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 257-260.
    14. David Crainich & Louis Eeckhoudt, 2008. "On the intensity of downside risk aversion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 267-276, June.
    15. Philippe Artzner & Freddy Delbaen & Jean‐Marc Eber & David Heath, 1999. "Coherent Measures of Risk," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 203-228, July.
    16. Cary Deck & Harris Schlesinger, 2014. "Consistency of Higher Order Risk Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(5), pages 1913-1943, September.
    17. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, September.
    18. Patrick Roger, 2011. "Mixed risk aversion and preference for risk disaggregation: a story of moments," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 27-44, January.
    19. Milton Friedman & L. J. Savage, 1948. "The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56, pages 279-279.
    20. Menegatti, Mario, 2015. "New results on high-order risk changes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(2), pages 678-681.
    21. Ekern, Steinar, 1980. "Increasing Nth degree risk," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 329-333.
    22. Patrick L. Brockett & Linda L. Golden, 1987. "A Class of Utility Functions Containing all the Common Utility Functions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(8), pages 955-964, August.
    23. Menezes, C & Geiss, C & Tressler, J, 1980. "Increasing Downside Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 921-932, December.
    24. Pratt, John W, 1988. "Aversion to One Risk in the Presence of Others," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 395-413, December.
    25. Lajeri-Chaherli, Fatma, 2004. "Proper prudence, standard prudence and precautionary vulnerability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 29-34, January.
    26. Georges Dionne (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of Insurance," Springer Books, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-4614-0155-1, June.
    27. Liu, Liqun, 2014. "Precautionary saving in the large: nth degree deteriorations in future income," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 169-172.
    28. Jean, William H, 1984. "The Harmonic Mean and Other Necessary Conditions for Stochastic Dominance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(2), pages 527-534, June.
    29. Gollier, Christian & Pratt, John W, 1996. "Risk Vulnerability and the Tempering Effect of Background Risk," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1109-1123, September.
    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. Loubergé, Henri & Malevergne, Yannick & Rey, Béatrice, 2020. "New Results for additive and multiplicative risk apportionment," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 140-151.
    2. Cary Deck & Sebastian Ebert & Andreas Richter, 2018. "Special issue in honor of Harris Schlesinger: New developments in the study of risk preferences," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, Springer;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 43(1), pages 1-4, May.
    3. Heinzel, Christoph, 2023. "Comparing utility derivative premia under additive and multiplicative risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 23-40.
    4. Marzia Donno & Marco Magnani & Mario Menegatti, 2020. "Changes in multiplicative risks and optimal portfolio choice: new interpretations and results," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(1), pages 251-267, June.
    5. Christophe Courbage & Béatrice Rey, 2020. "On temperance and risk spreading," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 527-539, May.
    6. Tomer Shushi, 2018. "Towards a Topological Representation of Risks and Their Measures," Risks, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-11, November.

    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. Liqun Liu & William S. Neilson, 2019. "Alternative Approaches to Comparative n th-Degree Risk Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(8), pages 3824-3834, August.
    2. Donatella Baiardi & Marco Magnani & Mario Menegatti, 2020. "The theory of precautionary saving: an overview of recent developments," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 513-542, June.
    3. Heinzel, Christoph, 2023. "Comparing utility derivative premia under additive and multiplicative risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 23-40.
    4. Christian Gollier & James Hammitt & Nicolas Treich, 2013. "Risk and choice: A research saga," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 129-145, October.
    5. Marzia Donno & Marco Magnani & Mario Menegatti, 2020. "Changes in multiplicative risks and optimal portfolio choice: new interpretations and results," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(1), pages 251-267, June.
    6. Loubergé, Henri & Malevergne, Yannick & Rey, Béatrice, 2020. "New Results for additive and multiplicative risk apportionment," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 140-151.
    7. Paan Jindapon & Liqun Liu & William S. Neilson, 2021. "Comparative risk apportionment," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 9(1), pages 91-112, April.
    8. Michel Denuit & Liqun Liu, 2014. "Decreasing higher-order absolute risk aversion and higher-degree stochastic dominance," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 287-295, February.
    9. Eeckhoudt, Louis & Schlesinger, Harris & Tsetlin, Ilia, 2009. "Apportioning of risks via stochastic dominance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 994-1003, May.
    10. Sebastian Ebert & Diego C. Nocetti & Harris Schlesinger, 2018. "Greater Mutual Aggravation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2809-2811, June.
    11. Christophe Courbage & Henri Loubergé & Béatrice Rey, 2017. "On the properties of non-monetary measures for risks," Working Papers halshs-01471888, HAL.
    12. Rachel J. Huang & Larry Y. Tzeng & Lin Zhao, 2020. "Fractional Degree Stochastic Dominance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4630-4647, October.
    13. Denuit, Michel & Liu, Liqun, 2013. "Decreasing higher-order absolute risk aversion and higher-degree stochastic dominance," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2013007, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    14. Liu, Liqun & Meyer, Jack, 2013. "Substituting one risk increase for another: A method for measuring risk aversion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(6), pages 2706-2718.
    15. Christophe Courbage & Béatrice Rey, 2016. "Decision Thresholds and Changes in Risk for Preventive Treatment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 111-124, January.
    16. Diego C. Nocetti, 2016. "Robust Comparative Statics of Risk Changes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1381-1392, May.
    17. Trautmann, Stefan T. & Kuilen, Gijs van de, 2018. "Higher order risk attitudes: A review of experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 108-124.
    18. Louis Eeckhoudt & Harris Schlesinger, 2006. "Putting Risk in Its Proper Place," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 280-289, March.
    19. Li, Jingyuan & Liu, Liqun, 2014. "The monetary utility premium and interpersonal comparisons," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 257-260.
    20. Heinzel Christoph & Richard Peter, 2021. "Precautionary motives with multiple instruments," Working Papers SMART 21-09, INRAE UMR SMART.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mixed risk aversion; Risk apportionment; Merging increases in risk; Superadditivity; nth-order utility premium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under 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:pal:genrir:v:43:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1057_s10713-018-0029-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.