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What do happiness and health satisfaction data tell us about relative risk aversion?

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  • Nestor Gandelman
  • Ruben Hernandez-Murillo

Abstract

In this paper we provide estimates of the coefficient of relative risk aversion using information on self-reports of subjective personal well-being from the 2006 Gallup World Poll. We expand the existing literature on the use of happiness data to analyze economic issues by considering the implications of allowing for health state dependence in the utility function. Our estimates of relative risk aversion using pooled data from various country groupings are smaller than one, suggesting less concavity than log utility. We also find that controlling for health dependence generally reduces these estimates. Our results also suggest that the marginal utility of income increases when health deteriorates.

Suggested Citation

  • Nestor Gandelman & Ruben Hernandez-Murillo, 2011. "What do happiness and health satisfaction data tell us about relative risk aversion?," Working Papers 2011-039, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2011-039
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    4. Ordine, Patrizia & Rose, Giuseppe, 2017. "On the State and Wealth dependence of risk aversion: An analysis using severance pay allocation," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 156-171.
    5. Peled, Yoav & Zemah-Shamir, Shiri & Israel, Alvaro & Shechter, Mordechai & Ofir, Eyal & Gal, Gideon, 2020. "Incorporating insurance value into ecosystem services assessments: Mitigation of ecosystem users’ welfare uncertainty through biological control," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    6. James Alm, 2019. "What Motivates Tax Compliance?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 353-388, April.
    7. Jean-Marc Germain, 2023. "Beyond GDP: A Welfare-Based Estimate of Growth for 14 European Countries and the USA Over Past Decades," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 539, pages 3-25.
    8. Kyoung Jin Choi & Junkee Jeon & Hyeng Keun Koo, 2018. "Duesenberry's Theory of Consumption: Habit, Learning, and Ratcheting," Papers 1812.10038, arXiv.org.
    9. Karl Whelan, 2024. "Risk aversion and favourite–longshot bias in a competitive fixed‐odds betting market," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(361), pages 188-209, January.
    10. Maria Kaneva & Christopher J. Gerry & Nikolay Avxentiev & Valerii Baidin, 2019. "Attitudes to reform: Could a cooperative health insurance scheme work in Russia?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 371-394, December.
    11. Nestor Gandelman & Ruben Hernandez-Murillo, 2015. "Risk Aversion at the Country Level," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 97(1), pages 53-66.
    12. Fisher, Patti J. & Yao, Rui, 2017. "Gender differences in financial risk tolerance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 191-202.
    13. Elena Lagomarsino & Alessandro Spiganti, 2023. "Risk Aversion and the Size of Desired Debt," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(1), pages 369-396, March.
    14. Levy, Moshe, 2015. "An evolutionary explanation for risk aversion," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 51-61.
    15. Klein Teeselink, Bouke & Zauberman, Gal, 2023. "The Anna Karenina income effect: Well-being inequality decreases with income," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 501-513.
    16. Moshe Levy, 2022. "An evolutionary explanation of the Allais paradox," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 1545-1574, November.
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    18. Zhang, Jingjing, 2020. "International production fragmentation, trade in intermediate goods and environment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-7.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Happiness; Health; Risk-taking (Psychology);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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