The preference reversal phenomenon is one of the most important, long-standing, and widespread anomalies contradicting economic models of decisions under risk. It describes the robust observation of frequent "standard reversals" where long-shot gambles are valued above moderate ones but then the...

This chapter surveys the rapidly growing literature in which risk preferences are measured and manipulated in laboratory and field experiments. The most commonly used measurement instruments are: an investment task for allocations between a safe and risky asset, a choice menu task for eliciting...

Risk and risk aversion are important concepts when modeling how to choose from or rank a set of random variables. This chapter reviews and summarizes the definitions and related findings concerning risk aversion and risk in both a mean-variance and an expected utility decision model context.

We study risk aversion and prudence in medical treatment decisions. In a laboratory experiment, we investigate the frequency and intensity of second- and third-order risk preferences, as well as the effect of the medical decision context. Risk preferences are assessed through treatment...

We model an urban labour market in a developing economy, incorporating workers’ risk attitudes. Trade-offs between risk aversion and ability determine worker allocation across formal and informal wage employment, and voluntary and involuntary self employment. Greater risk of informal wage...

This paper analyzes optimal prevention in a situation of multiple, possibly correlated risks. We focus on probability reduction (self-protection) so that correlation becomes endogenous. If prevention concerns only one risk, introducing a second exogenous risk increases the level of prevention...

We present the first calibration of quantum decision theory (QDT) to an empirical data set. The data comprise 91 choices between two lotteries (two "prospects") presented in 91 random pairs made by 142 subjects offered at two separated times. First, we quantitatively account for the fraction of...

This paper proposes and characterises a model of uncertainty averse preferences that can simultaneously accommodate three divergences from subjective expected utility: imprecision of beliefs (or ambiguity), imprecision of tastes (or multi utility), and state dependence of utility. Moreover, it...

We study portfolio allocation and characterize contracts issued by firms in the international financial market when investors exhibit ambiguity aversion and perceive ambiguity in assets issued in foreign locations. Increases in the variance of their risky production process cause firms to issue...

In this paper we assess the importance of sample type in the estimation of risk preferences. We elicit and compare risk preferences from student subjects and subjects drawn from the general population, using the multiple price list method devised by Holt and Laury in their paper Risk Aversion...