The conventional measures of absolute and relative risk aversion are appropriate for measuring preferences locally, but because they rely on differential calculus, they cannot accurately capture attitudes towards high-stakes risks involving potentially large changes in wealth. Eisenhauer (2006)...

The aim of this note is to suggest that prudence, i.e. convexity of marginal utility, can only explain a small share of precautionary savings, which we may define as savings generated by variance in income. Therefore, if we are willing to admit that precautionary savings constitute a sizable...

In this paper, we analyze the wealth accumulation and saving behavior of the retired elderly in Italy using micro data from the “Survey of Italian Households’ Income and Wealth,” a panel survey of households conducted every two years by the Bank of Italy. We find that, on average, the...