IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v176y2010i1p179-19010.1007-s10479-008-0381-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Representing risk preferences in expected utility based decision models

Author

Listed:
  • Jack Meyer

Abstract

Users of expected utility based decision models frequently find it useful or necessary to specify a functional form that represents the risk preferences of a decision maker. Having additional functional forms from which to choose would be helpful. The literature so far has provided several such functional forms for the utility function itself. The discussion presented here indicates that providing a functional form for the marginal utility function is an alternate and equally useful way to represent risk preferences. Furthermore, functional forms for marginal utility are easier to provide, and there exist functional forms for marginal utility that represent simple risk preferences for which there is no associated functional form for the utility function. Several functional forms for marginal utility are suggested, and the class of isoelastic risk preferences is identified and discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Suggested Citation

  • Jack Meyer, 2010. "Representing risk preferences in expected utility based decision models," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 179-190, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:176:y:2010:i:1:p:179-190:10.1007/s10479-008-0381-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-008-0381-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-008-0381-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-008-0381-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atanu Saha & C. Richard Shumway & Hovav Talpaz, 1994. "Joint Estimation of Risk Preference Structure and Technology Using Expo-Power Utility," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(2), pages 173-184.
    2. LiCalzi, Marco & Sorato, Annamaria, 2006. "The Pearson system of utility functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(2), pages 560-573, July.
    3. Danyang Xie, 2000. "Power Risk Aversion Utility Functions," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 1(2), pages 265-282, November.
    4. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Generalised Extreme Value Distribution as Utility Function," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 275-288.
    5. Merton, Robert C., 1971. "Optimum consumption and portfolio rules in a continuous-time model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 373-413, December.
    6. Narayana R. Kocherlakota, 1996. "The Equity Premium: It's Still a Puzzle," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 42-71, March.
    7. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Flexible Three Parameter Utility Function," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 8(1), pages 57-63, May.
    9. Meyer, Donald J. & Meyer, Jack, 2005. "Risk preferences in multi-period consumption models, the equity premium puzzle, and habit formation utility," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1497-1515, November.
    10. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Holt, Matthew T, 1996. "Economic Behavior under Uncertainty: A Joint Analysis of Risk Preferences and Technology," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 329-335, May.
    11. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1985. "The equity premium: A puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-161, March.
    12. Donald Meyer & Jack Meyer, 2005. "Relative Risk Aversion: What Do We Know?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 243-262, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Donald Meyer & Jack Meyer, 2011. "A Diamond-Stiglitz approach to the demand for self-protection," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 45-60, February.
    2. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Generalised Extreme Value Distribution as Utility Function," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 275-288.
    3. repec:lan:wpaper:2434 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Aurélien Baillon & Olivier L’Haridon, 2021. "Discrete Arrow–Pratt indexes for risk and uncertainty," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 72(4), pages 1375-1393, November.
    5. Danau, Daniel, 2020. "Prudence and preference for flexibility gain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(2), pages 776-785.
    6. Jeongseok Song & Doojin Ryu, 2018. "Aging effects on consumption risk-sharing channels in European countries," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 36(2), pages 585-617.
    7. Canales, Elizabeth & Bergtold, Jason S. & Williams, Jeffery & Peterson, Jeffrey, 2015. "Estimating farmers’ risk attitudes and risk premiums for the adoption of conservation practices under different contractual arrangements: A stated choice experiment," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205640, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Mulligan, Karen & Baid, Drishti & Doctor, Jason N. & Phelps, Charles E. & Lakdawalla, Darius N., 2024. "Risk preferences over health: Empirical estimates and implications for medical decision-making," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Georges Hübner & Thomas Lejeune, 2015. "Portfolio choice and investor preferences : A semi-parametric approach based on risk horizon," Working Paper Research 289, National Bank of Belgium.
    10. Migali, Giuseppe, 2012. "Funding higher education and wage uncertainty: Income contingent loan versus mortgage loan," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 871-889.
    11. Wei Hu & Yongjian Li, 2012. "Retail service for mixed retail and E-tail channels," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 151-171, January.
    12. Elizabeth Canales & Jason S. Bergtold & Jeffery R. Williams, 2024. "Conservation intensification under risk: An assessment of adoption, additionality, and farmer preferences," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(1), pages 45-75, January.
    13. Yosra Miaoui & Noureddine Boudriga, 2019. "Enterprise security investment through time when facing different types of vulnerabilities," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 261-300, April.
    14. repec:lan:wpaper:2516 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:lan:wpaper:2436 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Soumyatanu Mukherjee & Sidhartha S. Padhi, 2022. "Sourcing decision under interconnected risks: an application of mean–variance preferences approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 313(2), pages 1243-1268, June.
    17. repec:lan:wpaper:2660 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Pramod C. Mane & Kapil Ahuja & Nagarajan Krishnamurthy, 2020. "Stability, efficiency, and contentedness of social storage networks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 287(2), pages 811-842, April.
    19. Yosra Miaoui & Noureddine Boudriga, 0. "Enterprise security investment through time when facing different types of vulnerabilities," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-40.
    20. Liqun Liu & Jack Meyer, 2012. "Decreasing absolute risk aversion, prudence and increased downside risk aversion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 243-260, June.
    21. Reichel, Lukas & Schmeiser, Hato & Schreiber, Florian, 2021. "Sometimes more, sometimes less: Prudence and the diversification of risky insurance coverage," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(2), pages 770-783.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Denis Conniffe, 2007. "The Generalised Extreme Value Distribution as Utility Function," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 275-288.
    2. Jakusch, Sven Thorsten, 2017. "On the applicability of maximum likelihood methods: From experimental to financial data," SAFE Working Paper Series 148, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2017.
    3. Just, David R., 2011. "Calibrating the wealth effects of decoupled payments: Does decreasing absolute risk aversion matter?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 162(1), pages 25-34, May.
    4. Zimper, Alexander, 2012. "Asset pricing in a Lucas fruit-tree economy with the best and worst in mind," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 610-628.
    5. Ludwig, Alexander & Zimper, Alexander, 2014. "Biased Bayesian learning with an application to the risk-free rate puzzle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 79-97.
    6. Benjamin Eden, 2008. "Substitution, Risk Aversion and Asset Prices: An Expected Utility Approach," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0803, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    7. Michal Czerwonko & Stylianos Perrakis, 2016. "Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs and Jump-Diffusion Asset Dynamics II: Economic Implications," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(04), pages 1-28, December.
    8. Pope, Rulon D. & LaFrance, Jeffrey T. & Just, Richard E., 2011. "Agricultural arbitrage and risk preferences," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 162(1), pages 35-43, May.
    9. George Chacko & Luis M. Viceira, 2005. "Dynamic Consumption and Portfolio Choice with Stochastic Volatility in Incomplete Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1369-1402.
    10. Grant, Simon & Quiggin, John, 2003. "The Risk Premium for Equity: Implicatiosn for Resource Allocation, Welfare adn Policy," Working Papers 2003-14, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    11. Smith, William T. & Zhang, Qiang, 2007. "Asset pricing with multiplicative habit and power-expo preferences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 319-325, March.
    12. Just, Richard E., 2000. "Some Guiding Principles For Empirical Production Research In Agriculture," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 29(2), pages 1-21, October.
    13. Conniffe, Denis, 2008. "Generalised Means of Simple Utility Functions with Risk Aversion," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-12.
    14. Pascal St-Amour, 2005. "Direct Preference Wealth in Aggregate Household Portfolios," FAME Research Paper Series rp136, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    15. John Y. Campbell, 2000. "Asset Pricing at the Millennium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1515-1567, August.
    16. Frey, Bruno S. & Gallus, Jana, 2014. "Aggregate effects of behavioral anomalies: A new research area," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-15.
    17. Petri Böckerman & Ohto Kanninen & Ilpo Suoniemi, "undated". "Income-well-being gradient in sickness and health," Working Papers 335, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.
    18. Wang, H. Holly & Du, Wen, 2005. "Intertemporal Risk Management Decisions of Farmers under Preference, Market, and Policy Dynamics," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19526, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    19. Louis Kaplow, 2005. "The Value of a Statistical Life and the Coefficient of Relative Risk Aversion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 23-34, July.
    20. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang & Tano Santos, "undated". "Prospect Theory and Asset Prices," CRSP working papers 494, Center for Research in Security Prices, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:176:y:2010:i:1:p:179-190:10.1007/s10479-008-0381-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.