There is no consensus among health economists about the specification of individual preferences that best fits observed behaviors. One crucial point of disagreement concerns the sign of the interaction between health and wealth in individual utility functions. We propose here a simple, static,...

There is no consensus among health economists about the specification of individual preferences that best fits observed behaviors. One crucial point of disagreement concerns the sign of the interaction between health and wealth in individual utility functions. We propose here a simple, static,...

Decisions under risk are often multidimensional, where the preferences of the decision maker depend on several attributes. For example, an individual might be concerned about both her level of wealth and the condition of her health. Many times the signs of successive cross-derivatives of a...

The concept of prudence is nowadays almost as well accepted as that of risk aversion. We show that the concept of temperance deserves a similar status since it rests on the same basic ideas as the other two ones. The analysis also specifies the link which exists in the expected utility model...

This paper shows that the notions of prudence, temperance, edginess, and, more generally, risk apportionment of any degree are the consequences of the natural idea that the sensitivity to detrimental changes should decrease with initial wealth. In the setting of Epstein and Tanny (1980), this...

In this paper, we look at how the presence of other risks modifies the optimal level of prevention to protect against one risk. We carry out our analysis in a two-period framework and use various configurations of other risks defined either in the first or second period, as state-independent or...

Decisions under risk are often multidimensional, where the preferences of the decision maker depend on several attributes. For example, an individual might be concerned about both her level of wealth and the condition of her health. Many times the signs of successive cross derivatives of a...