IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1507.00894.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality and risk aversion in economies open to altruistic attitudes

Author

Listed:
  • Eleonora Perversi
  • Eugenio Regazzini

Abstract

This paper attempts to find a relationship between agents' risk aversion and inequality of incomes. Specifically, a model is proposed for the evolution in time of surplus/deficit distribution, and the long-time distributions are characterized almost completely. They turn out to be weak Pareto laws with exponent linked to the relative risk aversion index which, in turn, is supposed to be the same for every agent. On the one hand, the aforesaid link is expressed by an affine transformation. On the other hand, the level of the relative risk aversion index results from a frequency distribution of observable quantities stemming from how agents interact in an economic sense. Combination of these facts is conducive to the specification of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of actions fit for the control of income concentration.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleonora Perversi & Eugenio Regazzini, 2015. "Inequality and risk aversion in economies open to altruistic attitudes," Papers 1507.00894, arXiv.org, revised May 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1507.00894
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.00894
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoram Kroll & Liema Davidovitz, 2003. "Inequality Aversion versus Risk Aversion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 70(277), pages 19-29, February.
    2. Robert J. Barro, 2006. "Rare Disasters and Asset Markets in the Twentieth Century," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 823-866.
    3. Silver, Jonathan & Slud, Eric & Takamoto, Keiji, 2002. "Statistical Equilibrium Wealth Distributions in an Exchange Economy with Stochastic Preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 417-435, October.
    4. Davidovich, Liema & Heilbrunn, Sibylle & Polovin, Avraham, 2009. "The Impact of Change in the Kibbutz on Risk- Taking of Entrepreneurs," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 37(2), pages 1-19.
    5. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    6. Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2005. "Are People Inequality-Averse, or Just Risk-Averse?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 72(3), pages 375-396, August.
    7. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Andrew F. Newman, 1991. "Risk-Bearing and the Theory of Income Distribution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 211-235.
    8. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1972. "Addendum to "increasing risk: I. A definition"," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 306-306, October.
    9. Kanbur, S M, 1979. "Of Risk Taking and the Personal Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 769-797, August.
    10. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    11. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, 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. Emanuele Dolera, 2022. "Preface to the Special Issue on “Bayesian Predictive Inference and Related Asymptotics—Festschrift for Eugenio Regazzini’s 75th Birthday”," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(15), pages 1-4, July.
    2. Bertram Düring & Lorenzo Pareschi & Giuseppe Toscani, 2018. "Kinetic models for optimal control of wealth inequalities," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 91(10), pages 1-12, October.

    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. Brice Magdalou & Dimitri Dubois & Phu Nguyen-Van, 2009. "Risk and Inequality Aversion in Social Dilemmas," Working Papers 09-02, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Mar 2009.
    2. Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2014. "Attitudes to Income Inequality: Experimental and Survey Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Roland Benabou, 2002. "Tax and Education Policy in a Heterogeneous-Agent Economy: What Levels of Redistribution Maximize Growth and Efficiency?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 481-517, March.
    4. Gharad Bryan & Shyamal Chowdhury & A. Mushfiq Mobarak, 2011. "Seasonal Migration and Risk Aversion," Working Papers id:4650, eSocialSciences.
    5. Meyer, Margaret & Strulovici, Bruno, 2012. "Increasing interdependence of multivariate distributions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(4), pages 1460-1489.
    6. Gharad Bryan & Shyamal Chowdhury & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2014. "Underinvestment in a Profitable Technology: The Case of Seasonal Migration in Bangladesh," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(5), pages 1671-1748, September.
    7. Gilles Saint-Paul, 2001. "The Dynamics of Exclusion and Fiscal Conservatism," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(2), pages 275-302, April.
    8. David Anthoff & Richard Tol, 2009. "The Impact of Climate Change on the Balanced Growth Equivalent: An Application of FUND," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 351-367, July.
    9. Hurley, Jeremiah & Mentzakis, Emmanouil & Walli-Attaei, Marjan, 2020. "Inequality aversion in income, health, and income-related health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Miqdad Asaria & Joan Costa-Font & Frank Cowell, 2023. "How does exposure to COVID-19 influence health and income inequality aversion?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(3), pages 625-647, October.
    11. Claudio A. Bonilla & Marcos Vergara & Richard Watt, 2022. "Changes in risk and entrepreneurship," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(4), pages 367-385, December.
    12. Stephan Klasen, 2008. "The Efficiency of Equity," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 257-274.
    13. Marcelo Bérgolo & Gabriel Burdín & Santiago Burone & Mauricio de Rosa & Matías Giaccobasso & Martín Leites, 2020. "Dissecting Inequality-Averse Preferences," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-19, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    14. Takashi Oshio & Miki Kobayashi, 2011. "Area-Level Income Inequality and Individual Happiness: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 633-649, August.
    15. Yong He & Guang-Zhen Sun, 2021. "Entrepreneurship, Market Selection And Income Mobility -Evidence From Rural China ," Post-Print halshs-03412133, HAL.
    16. Traub, Stefan & Seidl, Christian & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2009. "An experimental study on individual choice, social welfare, and social preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 385-400, May.
    17. Jukka Pirttilä & Roope Uusitalo, 2010. "A ‘Leaky Bucket’ in the Real World: Estimating Inequality Aversion using Survey Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 60-76, January.
    18. Xiao, Wei & Zhao, Guochang, 2020. "Who is affected: Influence of agricultural land on occupational choices of peasants in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Rampini, Adriano A., 2004. "Entrepreneurial activity, risk, and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 555-573, April.
    20. Dietrich, Stephan & Malerba, Daniele & Barrientos, Armando & Gassmann, Franziska, 2017. "Rates of return to antipoverty transfers in Uganda," MERIT Working Papers 2017-040, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:1507.00894. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.