IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/may/mayecw/n1790907.pdf.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Generalised Means of Simple Utility Functions with Risk Aversion

Author

Listed:
  • Denis Conniffe

    (Economics, National University of Ireland, Maynooth)

Abstract

The paper examines the properties of a generalised mean of simple utilities each displaying risk aversion, that is, with first derivative positive and second derivative negative. It proves the mean is itself a valid utility function with the appropriate signs for derivatives and investigates risk aversion properties. It shows that simple component utilities, each of which may have quite restricted risk aversion properties, can be parsimoniously combined through the generalised mean formula to give a much more versatile utility function.

Suggested Citation

  • Denis Conniffe, 2007. "Generalised Means of Simple Utility Functions with Risk Aversion," Economics Department Working Paper Series n1790907.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    • Handle: RePEc:may:mayecw:n1790907.pdf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.maynoothuniversity.ie/mayecw-files/N1790907.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter H. Farquhar & Yutaka Nakamura, 1987. "Constant Exchange Risk Properties," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 206-214, April.
    2. Danyang Xie, 2000. "Power Risk Aversion Utility Functions," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 1(2), pages 265-282, November.
    3. Meyer, Donald J. & Meyer, Jack, 2005. "Risk preferences in multi-period consumption models, the equity premium puzzle, and habit formation utility," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1497-1515, November.
    4. David E. Bell & Peter C. Fishburn, 2001. "Strong One-Switch Utility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 601-604, April.
    5. Caballe, Jordi & Pomansky, Alexey, 1996. "Mixed Risk Aversion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 485-513, November.
    6. Pratt, John W & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1987. "Proper Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 143-154, January.
    7. Gerry Boyle & Denis Conniffe, 2006. "Compatibility of Expected Utility and µ/s Approaches to Risk for a Class of Non Location-Scale Distributions," Economics Department Working Paper Series n1670406, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    8. Nakamura, Yutaka, 1996. "Sumex utility functions," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 39-47, February.
    9. Prof. Denis Conniffe, 2002. "Sums and Products of Indirect Utility Functions," NIRSA Working Paper Series 6, National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), NUI Maynooth, Ireland..
    10. Denis Conniffe, 2002. "Sums and Products of Indirect Utility Functions," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 285-295.
    11. David E. Bell, 1988. "One-Switch Utility Functions and a Measure of Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(12), pages 1416-1424, December.
    12. Conniffe Denis, 2007. "A Note on Generating Globally Regular Indirect Utility Functions," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, January.
    13. Kimball, Miles S, 1993. "Standard Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 589-611, May.
    14. Meyer, Jack, 1987. "Two-moment Decision Models and Expected Utility Maximization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 421-430, June.
    15. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Flexible Three Parameter Utility Function," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 8(1), pages 57-63, May.
    16. Gregory M. Gelles & Douglas W. Mitchell, 1999. "Broadly Decreasing Risk Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(10), pages 1432-1439, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Generalised Extreme Value Distribution as Utility Function," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 275-288.
    2. LiCalzi, Marco & Sorato, Annamaria, 2006. "The Pearson system of utility functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(2), pages 560-573, July.
    3. Thomas Eichner, 2008. "Mean Variance Vulnerability," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 586-593, March.
    4. David E. Bell & Peter C. Fishburn, 2001. "Strong One-Switch Utility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 601-604, April.
    5. Bjørn Sandvik & Lars Thorlund-Petersen, 2010. "Sensitivity Analysis of Risk Tolerance," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 313-321, September.
    6. Ilia Tsetlin & Robert L. Winkler, 2009. "Multiattribute Utility Satisfying a Preference for Combining Good with Bad," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(12), pages 1942-1952, December.
    7. Gollier, Christian, 2002. "Time Horizon and the Discount Rate," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 463-473, December.
    8. 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.
    9. Denuit, Michel M. & Eeckhoudt, Louis & Schlesinger, Harris, 2013. "When Ross meets Bell: The linex utility function," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 177-182.
    10. Louis Eeckhoudt & Harris Schlesinger, 2006. "Putting Risk in Its Proper Place," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 280-289, March.
    11. Parkash Chander, 2006. "Repetitive risk aversion," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(3), pages 701-711, November.
    12. Fatma Lajeri-Chaherli, 2016. "On The Concavity And Quasiconcavity Properties Of ( Σ , Μ ) Utility Functions," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 287-296, April.
    13. James Huang & Richard Stapleton, 2017. "Higher-order risk vulnerability," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 63(2), pages 387-406, February.
    14. Jordi Caballe & Joan Esteban, 2007. "Stochastic Dominance and Absolute Risk Aversion," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 28(1), pages 89-110, January.
    15. Keenan, Donald C. & Snow, Arthur, 2012. "Ross risk vulnerability for introductions and changes in background risk," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 197-206.
    16. Sebastian Ebert & Diego C. Nocetti & Harris Schlesinger, 2018. "Greater Mutual Aggravation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2809-2811, June.
    17. Menegatti, Mario, 2015. "New results on high-order risk changes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(2), pages 678-681.
    18. Jack Meyer, 2010. "Representing risk preferences in expected utility based decision models," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 179-190, April.
    19. Craig W. Kirkwood, 2004. "Approximating Risk Aversion in Decision Analysis Applications," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 51-67, March.
    20. Robert F. Dittmar, 2002. "Nonlinear Pricing Kernels, Kurtosis Preference, and Evidence from the Cross Section of Equity Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 369-403, February.

    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:may:mayecw:n1790907.pdf. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demayie.html .

    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.