This paper explores the differences in observed risk propensity among petroleum firms and their impact on firm performance. In this work, we (1) develop a decision theoretic model which measures a firm's risk propensity in the form of an "implied" utility function; (2) investigate changes in...

Numerous studies have shown that compensation demanded (CD) to give up a commodity often greatly exceeds willingness to pay (WTP) to obtain the same commodity, even in incentive compatible experiments that penalize strategic misrepresentation. Observed CD/WTP disparities are too large to be...

Film studios occasionally withhold movies from critics before their release. Because the unreviewed movies tend to be below average in quality, this practice provides a useful setting in which to test models of limited strategic thinking: Do moviegoers seem to realize that no review is a sign of...

We integrate a case-based model of probability judgment with prospect theory to explore asset pricing under uncertainty. Research within the "heuristics and biases" tradition suggests that probability judgments respond primarily to case-specific evidence and disregard aggregate characteristics...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the <i>use of</i> competitive compensation between a manager and a worker in the laboratory. To this end, we impose a simple agency relationship between two groups of subjects termed managers and workers. The manager chooses a compensation scheme for the...

Sequential sampling problems arise in stochastic simulation and many other applications. Sampling is used to infer the unknown performance of several alternatives before one alternative is selected as best. This paper presents new economically motivated fully sequential sampling procedures to...

This paper deals with a basic issue: How does one approach the problem of designing the "right" objective for a given resource allocation problem? The notion of what is right can be fairly nebulous; we consider two issues that we see as key: efficiency and fairness. We approach the problem of...

In many circumstances, evaluations are based on empirical data. However, some observations may be imprecise, meaning that it is not entirely clear what occurred in them. We address the question of how beliefs are formed in these situations. The individual in our model is essentially a...

The one-switch property states that the preference between any two lotteries switches at most once as wealth increases. Working within the expected utility framework, we extend the one-switch notion to the multiattribute case and identify the families of multiattribute utility functions that are...

In this paper we develop a conceptual framework and model for valuing risks to an individual's health and life and to support decision making about investments in health, quality of life, and safety. Our treatment of health risks in the model builds on the popular quality-adjusted-life-year...