We describe the observable content of some of the most widely used models of decision under uncertainty: models of translation invariant preferences. In particular, we characterize the models of variational, maxmin, constant absolute risk aversion, and constant relative risk aversion utilities. In each case we present a revealed preference axiom that is satisfied by a dataset if and only if the...

This paper examines how aversion to risk and aversion to intertemporal substitution determine the strength of the precautionary saving motive in a two-period model with Selden/Kreps-Porteus preferences. For small risks, we derive a measure of the strength of the precautionary saving motive which generalizes the concept of “prudence” introduced by Kimball [12]. For large risks, we show that decr...

We consider agents as a source of welfare for a principal. The principal provides funds, and the benefits produced are known only to the source. If more productive sources are less risk-averse, the principal offers fixed and variable bundles to screen sources. The analysis reveals that the optimal lottery achieves great target efficiency. Indeed, when the ratio of marginal benefits approaches z...

This note shows that M. J. Machina’s (1982, Econometrica 50, 277–323) assumption that preferences over lotteries are smooth has some economic implications. We show that Fréchet differentiability implies that preferences represent second order risk aversion (as well as conditional second order risk aversion). This implies, among other things, that decision makers buy full insurance only at the a...

KLSX91] ensure the existence of the expected utility maximizer for investors with constant relative risk aversion coefficients less than one. In this note, we explain a simple trick that allows us to use this result to provide the existence of utility maximizers for arbitrary coefficients of relative risk aversion. The simplicity of our approach is to be contrasted with the general existence re...

This paper generalizes the notion of risk aversion for functions which are not necessarily differentiable nor strictly concave. Using an approach based on superdifferentials, we define the notion of a risk aversion measure, from which the classical absolute as well as relative risk aversion follows as a RadonNikodym derivative if it exists. Using this notion, we are able to compare risk aversio...

This paper examines the effects of risk aversion on compliance choices in markets for pollution control. A firm's decision to be compliant or not is independent of its manager's risk preference. However, non-compliant firms with risk-averse managers will have lower violations than otherwise identical firms with risk-neutral managers. The violations of non-compliant firms with risk-averse manage...

In this paper we study a dynamic contracting problem of optimal risk-sharing between a principal and an agent who invest in a common constant-returns-to-scale risky venture. Investment flow-returns follow a geometric Brownian motion and the two agents’ risk-preferences are represented by additively separable utility functions exhibiting constant relative risk-aversion (CRRA). Principal and agen...