The standard model of intertemporal choice assumes risk neutrality toward the length of life: due to additivity, agents are not sensitive to a mean preserving spread in the length of life. Using a survey fielded in the RAND American Life Panel (ALP), this paper provides empirical evidence on...

Many studies document failures of expected utility’s key assumption, the independence axiom. Here, we show that independence can be decomposed into two distinct axioms - betweenness and homotheticity - and that these two axioms are necessary and sufficient for independence. Thus, independence...

We explore a satisficing approach (Simon, 1955) to measure risk preference, which suggests cognitive limitations to decision making. In an experiment, subjects invest in a portfolio that contains a risk-free bond and a risky asset which has high or low return states with equal probability. The...

We propose an instrument to measure individuals' social preferences regarding equity and efficiency behind a veil of ignorance. We pair portfolio and wealth distribution choice problems which have a common budget set. For a given bundle, the distribution over an individual's wealth is the same...

We leverage the assumption that preferences are stable across contexts to par- tially identify and conduct inference on the parameters of a structural model of risky choice. Working with data on households’ deductible choices across three lines of insurance coverage and a model that nests...