Many policies and regulations are intended to protect human life and health. To analyze the benefits and costs of these measures, we must address society’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a variety of health-risk reductions. By convention, economists report estimates of this WTP in terms of a unit called a “statistical life.”1 While some economists may not be particularly familiar with this termin...

This paper presents moments and cross-moments of utility functions and measures of utility dependence. We start with an interpretation of the nth moment of a utility function, and describe methods for its assessment in practice and consistency checks that need to be satisfied for any assessed moments. We then show how moments of a utility function (i) provide a new method to determine the param...

We study a multiperson bargaining problem with general risk preferences through the use of Shaked’s game of cycling offers with exogenous breakdown. If preferences are “smooth,” then as the risk of breakdown vanishes, the limiting outcome is one in which bargainers are equally marginally bold; where a bargainer’s marginal boldness measures his willingness to risk disagreement in return for a ma...

We analyze the valuation of American options under the forward performance criterion introduced by Musiela and Zariphopoulou (2008). In this framework, the performance criterion evolves forward in time without reference to a specific future time horizon. Moreover, risk preferences change with stochastic market conditions, which is natural as investors are clearly more risk averse in economic do...

On the Curvature of the Reporting Function from Objective Reality to Subjective Feelings I suggest the idea of a reporting function, r(.), from reality to feelings. The ‘happiness’ literature claims we have demonstrated diminishing marginal utility of income. I show not, and that knowing r(.)’s curvature is crucial. A quasi-experiment on heights is studied. JEL Classification: I3, D1

This paper starts with a paragraph which presents a classical portfolio selection model and the problems which must be solved by an investitor when he wants to make an investment decision. In the following we present some results for a standard risk sharing model of reinsurance markets. In the end we consider the case of marginal mixture exponential utility functions.

This paper studies the properties of convexity (concavity) and strategic complements (substitutes) in network formation and the implications for the structure of pairwise stable networks. First, different definitions of convexity (concavity) in own links from the literature are put into the context of diminishing marginal utility of own links. Second, it is shown that there always exists a pair...

Shortfall aversion reflects the higher utility loss of a spending cut from a reference point than the utility gain from a similar spending increase, in the spirit of Prospect Theory’s loss aversion. This paper posits a model of utility of spending scaled by a function of past peak spending, called target spending. The discontinuity of the marginal utility at the target spending corresponds to s...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical utility of an implant with a sandblasted, large-grit, acid-etched (SLA) surface and internal connection. METHODS Six patients who received dental implants in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Chonnam National University Dental Hospital, were analyzed by factors influencing the success rate and marg...

The goal of the paper is to introduce a family of values for transferable utility cooperative games that are proportional for twoperson games and as well satisfying some combinatorial structure composed by contributions of complementary coalitions or, to less extent, marginal contributions by players.