We study how learning shapes behavior towards risk when individuals are not assumed to know, or to have beliefs about, probability distributions. In any period, the behavior change induced by learning is assumed to depend on the action chosen and the payoff obtained. We characterize learning...

We quantified the effect of first experience on behavior in operant learning and studied its underlying computational principles. To that goal, we analyzed more than 200,000 choices in a repeated-choice experiment. We found that the outcome of the first experience has a substantial and lasting...

Recent studies have identified the uncertainty effect (UE), whereby risky prospects (e.g., a binary lottery that offers either a $50 or $100 gift certificate) are valued less than their worst possible outcome (a $50 certificate). This effect has been proposed to result from ``direct...

This paper focuses on the estimation of the importance of the precautionary motive in the wealth accumulation decision. We use a micro dataset containing information on wealth, a subjective measure of income uncertainty and subjective indicators of risk aversion. The latter makes us possible to...

Maps of completely proper rationality are introduced so as to parametrize departure from CARA decisionmaking in terms of level effects, and deepen the link between risk aversion, prudence and higher order concepts in connection with the objective approach to riskiness set forth by Aumann and...

We test whether induced mood states have an effect on elicited risk and time preferences in a conventional laboratory experiment. We jointly estimate risk and time preferences and find that both negative and positive mood states increase patience as well as risk aversion but the magnitude of the...

We devise a randomized experiment using task performance in which players (acting as spectators/stakeholders) directly decide on allocation criteria under ignorance or knowledge of the payoff distributions. Our main result is a strong and significant gender effect: women choose significantly...

Risk aversion is a prevalent phenomenon when sufficiently large amounts are at risk. In this paper, we introduce a new prescriptive approach for coping with risk in sequential decision problems with discrete scenario space. We use Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) risk measure as optimization...

'Would having more women in leadership have prevented the financial crisis?' This question, raised in the popular media, can make effective fodder for teaching critical thinking within courses such as gender and economics, money and financial institutions, pluralist economics, or behavioural...

This paper aims to provide the first evidence concerning the relationship between time and risk preferences and illegal migration in an African context. Based upon our theoretical model and using a unique data set on potential migrants collected in urban Senegal, we evaluate a measure of time...