Is There One Unifying Concept of Utility?An Experimental Comparison of Utility Under Risk and Utility Over Time

This paper explores whether there is one unifying concept of utility, as commonly assumed in applied and empirical economics, or whether utility is context-specific, as typically assumed in economic theory. We present a new method to measure the utility for gains, the utility for losses, and loss aversion both for risk and for time. Utility under risk was significantly more curved than utility over time. Loss aversion under risk was more pronounced than loss aversion over time and the two were not correlated. This suggests that loss aversion, while important in both decision contexts, is volatile.