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Risk Aversion at the Country Level

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  • Nestor Gandelman
  • Ruben Hernandez-Murillo

Abstract

In this paper we provide estimates of the coefficient of relative risk aversion for 80 countries using data on self-reports of personal well-being from the Gallup World Poll. For most countries we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the coefficient of relative risk aversion equals 1. We conclude that our result supports the use of the log utility function in numerical simulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Nestor Gandelman & Ruben Hernandez-Murillo, 2014. "Risk Aversion at the Country Level," Working Papers 2014-5, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2014-005
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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