IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ver/wpaper/24-2015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Certainty Equivalent: Many Meanings of a Mean

Author

Listed:
  • Elisa Pagani

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

Abstract

The aim of this survey is to provide an overview of the main definitions of certainty equivalent and its applications in the one-dimensional and multidimensional framework. We also show the relationships between the concept of certainty equivalent and other definitions related to different fields. In particular, we focus on financial and economic approaches that imply risk or inequality measurement.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisa Pagani, 2015. "Certainty Equivalent: Many Meanings of a Mean," Working Papers 24/2015, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ver:wpaper:24/2015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dse.univr.it/home/workingpapers/wp2015n24.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abul Naga, Ramses H. & Geoffard, Pierre-Yves, 2006. "Decomposition of bivariate inequality indices by attributes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 362-367, March.
    2. Yaari, Menahem E, 1987. "The Dual Theory of Choice under Risk," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 95-115, January.
    3. Thibault Gajdos & John Weymark, 2005. "Multidimensional generalized Gini indices," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 26(3), pages 471-496, October.
    4. Alain Chateauneuf & Michéle Cohen & Isaac Meilijson, 2005. "More pessimism than greediness: a characterization of monotone risk aversion in the rank-dependent expected utility model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 25(3), pages 649-667, April.
    5. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. II," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 82-111, August.
    6. Robert F. Nau, 2003. "A Generalization of Pratt-Arrow Measure to Nonexpected-Utility Preferences and Inseparable Probability and Utility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(8), pages 1089-1104, August.
    7. Wang, Shaun, 1996. "Premium Calculation by Transforming the Layer Premium Density," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 71-92, May.
    8. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. I," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 416-442, June.
    9. Quiggin, John, 1982. "A theory of anticipated utility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 323-343, December.
    10. Becherer, Dirk, 2003. "Rational hedging and valuation of integrated risks under constant absolute risk aversion," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-28, August.
    11. Uzi Segal, 1984. "Nonlinear Decision Weights with the Independence Axiom," UCLA Economics Working Papers 353, UCLA Department of Economics.
    12. Keeney, Ralph L, 1973. "Risk Independence and Multiattributed Utility Functions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(1), pages 27-34, January.
    13. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    14. Scott F. Richard, 1975. "Multivariate Risk Aversion, Utility Independence and Separable Utility Functions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 12-21, September.
    15. Yaari, Menahem E., 1988. "A controversial proposal concerning inequality measurement," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 381-397, April.
    16. A. B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon, 1982. "The Comparison of Multi-Dimensioned Distributions of Economic Status," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(2), pages 183-201.
    17. Massimiliano Caporin & Grégory M. Jannin & Francesco Lisi & Bertrand B. Maillet, 2014. "A Survey On The Four Families Of Performance Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 917-942, December.
    18. Ross, Stephen A, 1981. "Some Stronger Measures of Risk Aversion in the Small and the Large with Applications," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 621-638, May.
    19. Schmeidler, David, 1989. "Subjective Probability and Expected Utility without Additivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(3), pages 571-587, May.
    20. Denuit Michel & Dhaene Jan & Goovaerts Marc & Kaas Rob & Laeven Roger, 2006. "Risk measurement with equivalent utility principles," Statistics & Risk Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 1-25, July.
    21. Louis Eeckhoudt & Béatrice Rey & Harris Schlesinger, 2007. "A Good Sign for Multivariate Risk Taking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 117-124, January.
    22. Robert Eisner & Robert H. Strotz, 1961. "Flight Insurance and the Theory of Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(4), pages 355-355.
    23. Eeckhoudt, L. & Godfroid, Ph. & Gollier, C., 1997. "Willingness to pay, the risk premium and risk aversion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 355-360, September.
    24. Gilboa, Itzhak & Schmeidler, David, 1989. "Maxmin expected utility with non-unique prior," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 141-153, April.
    25. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    26. Allais Maurice, 1990. "CARDINAL UTILITY: History, Empirical Findings, and Applications An Overview," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 3-40, June.
    27. J. Dhaene & S. Vanduffel & M. Goovaerts, 2007. "Comonotonicity," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(2), pages 265-278.
    28. Hans Föllmer & Alexander Schied, 2002. "Convex measures of risk and trading constraints," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 429-447.
    29. Christopher P. Chambers & Alan D. Miller, 2014. "Inefficiency Measurement," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 79-92, May.
    30. Chew, Soo Hong, 1983. "A Generalization of the Quasilinear Mean with Applications to the Measurement of Income Inequality and Decision Theory Resolving the Allais Paradox," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 1065-1092, July.
    31. Marco Corazza & Florence Legros & Cira Perna & Marilena Sibillo, 2017. "Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Actuarial Sciences and Finance," Post-Print hal-01776135, HAL.
    32. Christophe Courbage, 2001. "On Bivariate Risk Premia," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 29-34, February.
    33. Tsanakas, A. & Desli, E., 2003. "Risk Measures and Theories of Choice," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 959-991, October.
    34. Marco Frittelli, 2000. "Introduction to a theory of value coherent with the no-arbitrage principle," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 275-297.
    35. Kihlstrom, Richard E. & Mirman, Leonard J., 1974. "Risk aversion with many commodities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 361-388, July.
    36. Galichon, Alfred & Henry, Marc, 2012. "Dual theory of choice with multivariate risks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(4), pages 1501-1516.
    37. Hadar, Josef & Russell, William R, 1969. "Rules for Ordering Uncertain Prospects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 25-34, March.
    38. Denuit Michel & Dhaene Jan & Goovaerts Marc & Kaas Rob & Laeven Roger, 2006. "Risk measurement with equivalent utility principles," Statistics & Risk Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 1-25, July.
    39. Aharon Ben‐Tal & Marc Teboulle, 2007. "An Old‐New Concept Of Convex Risk Measures: The Optimized Certainty Equivalent," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 449-476, July.
    40. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    41. Machina, Mark J, 1982. ""Expected Utility" Analysis without the Independence Axiom," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 277-323, March.
    42. Dreze, Jacques H. & Modigliani, Franco, 1972. "Consumption decisions under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 308-335, December.
    43. J. C. R. Alcantud & G. Bosi, 2003. "On the existence of certainty equivalents of various relevant types," Journal of Applied Mathematics, Hindawi, vol. 2003, pages 1-12, January.
    44. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
    45. Aharon Ben-Tal & Marc Teboulle, 1986. "Expected Utility, Penalty Functions, and Duality in Stochastic Nonlinear Programming," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(11), pages 1445-1466, November.
    46. Borch, Karl, 1963. "Recent Developments in Economic Theory and their Application to Insurance," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 322-341, April.
    47. Blackorby, Charles & Donaldson, David, 1980. "A Theoretical Treatment of Indices of Absolute Inequality," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 21(1), pages 107-136, February.
    48. Duncan, George T, 1977. "A Matrix Measure of Multivariate Local Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(4), pages 895-903, May.
    49. Karni, Edi, 1979. "On Multivariate Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(6), pages 1391-1401, November.
    50. Bühlmann, H. & Gagliardi, B. & Gerber, H. U. & Straub, E., 1977. "Some Inequalities for Stop-Loss Premiums," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1-2), pages 75-83, January.
    51. Caperaa, Philippe & Eeckhoudt, Louis, 1975. "Delayed risks and risk premiums," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 309-320, September.
    52. Blackorby, Charles & Donaldson, David, 1978. "Measures of relative equality and their meaning in terms of social welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 59-80, June.
    53. Maasoumi, Esfandiar, 1986. "The Measurement and Decomposition of Multi-dimensional Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(4), pages 991-997, July.
    54. Serge-Christophe Kolm, 1977. "Multidimensional Egalitarianisms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(1), pages 1-13.
    55. Fishburn, Peter C, 1986. "Implicit Mean Value and Certainty Equivalence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1197-1205, September.
    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. Birgit Rudloff & Firdevs Ulus, 2019. "Certainty Equivalent and Utility Indifference Pricing for Incomplete Preferences via Convex Vector Optimization," Papers 1904.09456, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2020.

    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. Francesco Andreoli & Claudio Zoli, 2020. "From unidimensional to multidimensional inequality: a review," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(1), pages 5-42, April.
    2. Marcello Basili & Paulo Casaca & Alain Chateauneuf & Maurizio Franzini, 2017. "Multidimensional Pigou–Dalton transfers and social evaluation functions," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 573-590, December.
    3. Silvia Bortot & Ricardo Alberto Marques Pereira & Thuy H. Nguyen, 2015. "Welfare functions and inequality indices in the binomial decomposition of OWA functions," DEM Discussion Papers 2015/08, Department of Economics and Management.
    4. Thibault Gajdos & John Weymark, 2005. "Multidimensional generalized Gini indices," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 26(3), pages 471-496, October.
    5. Trabelsi, Mohamed Ali, 2006. "Les nouveaux modèles de décision dans le risque et l’incertain : quel apport ? [The new models of decision under risk or uncertainty : What approach?]," MPRA Paper 25442, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Zhong, Hai, 2009. "A multivariate analysis of the distribution of individual's welfare in China: What is the role of health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1062-1070, December.
    7. Antoine Bommier & Stéphane Zuber, 2012. "The Pareto Principle Of Optimal Inequality," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(2), pages 593-608, May.
    8. Trabelsi, Mohamed Ali, 2006. "Les nouveaux modèles de décision dans le risque et l’incertain : quel apport ? [The new models of decision under risk or uncertainty : What approach?]," MPRA Paper 25442, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Oihana Aristondo & JosŽ Luis Garc’a-Lapresta & Casilda Lasso de la Vega & Ricardo Alberto Marques Pereira, 2012. "Classical inequality indices, welfare functions, and the dual decomposition," DISA Working Papers 2012/06, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy, revised Jun 2012.
    10. Satya Chakravarty, 2007. "A deprivation-based axiomatic characterization of the absolute Bonferroni index of inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(3), pages 339-351, December.
    11. John A. Weymark, 2003. "The Normative Approach to the Measurement of Multidimensional Inequality," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0314, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics, revised Jan 2004.
    12. Christian Gollier & James Hammitt & Nicolas Treich, 2013. "Risk and choice: A research saga," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 129-145, October.
    13. Satya R. Chakravarty & Pietro Muliere, 2003. "Welfare indicators: A review and new perspectives. 1. Measurement of inequality," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(3), pages 457-497.
    14. Rolf Aaberge, 2009. "Ranking intersecting Lorenz curves," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 33(2), pages 235-259, August.
    15. Christoph Heinzel, 2014. "Term structure of discount rates under multivariate s-ordered consumption growth," Working Papers SMART 14-01, INRAE UMR SMART.
    16. Li, Jingyuan & Wang, Jianli & Zhou, Lin, 2024. "Correlation aversion and bivariate stochastic dominance with respect to reference functions," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 157-174.
    17. Nicolas Gravel & Patrick Moyes, 2006. "Ethically Robust Comparisons of Distributions of Two Individual Attributes," IDEP Working Papers 0605, Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France, revised Aug 2006.
    18. Gilles Boevi Koumou & Georges Dionne, 2022. "Coherent Diversification Measures in Portfolio Theory: An Axiomatic Foundation," Risks, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, October.
    19. Chateauneuf, Alain & Gajdos, Thibault & Wilthien, Pierre-Henry, 2002. "The Principle of Strong Diminishing Transfer," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 311-333, April.
    20. Ebert U., 1996. "Income inequality and differences in household size," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 57-58, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    certainty equivalent; risk; inequality; efficiency; willingness to pay.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ver:wpaper:24/2015. 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: Michael Reiter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isverit.html .

    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.