There exists no satisfactory theory of risk in current normative decision theories. Notions based on utility curvature, loss aversion and probability weighting are derivative, cannot be applied to nonnumerical consequences, and are not psychologically intuitive. I develop Pure Risk theory which resolves these problems – it is consistent with existing normative theories, and both internalises an...

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...

Theories of decision under risk that assume decreasing marginal utility of money have been critiqued with concavity calibration arguments. Since that critique uses varying payoffs and fixed probabilities, it cannot have implications for calibration of nonlinear probability transformation, which is another way to model risk aversion. The concavity calibration critique also has no implication for...

Human attitude towards risk is mixed. However, looking at the persuasive argument of diminishing marginal utility of wealth, academia has adopted risk aversion as the norm. Inculcating risk aversion, expected utility hypothesis (EUH) is used to rank risky options. ‘Allais paradox’ contradicted EUH but promoted the conviction of risk aversion intuitively on the basis of certainty effect. Most of...

D the payment scheme have an effect on inventory decisions in the newsvendor problem? Keeping the net profit structure constant, we examine three payment schemes that can be interpreted as the newsvendor’s order being financed by the newsvendor herself (scheme O), by the supplier through delayed order payment (scheme S), and by the customer through advanced revenue (scheme C). In a laboratory s...

Risk aversion and decreasing absolute risk aversion play prominent roles in the expected utility theory of demand for insurance against a known risk of accident losses. Demand for insurance against an accident risk that is not known with certainty depends on the attitude toward bearing this ambiguity as well as the underlying risk. Ambiguity aversion in the recursive model developed by Klibanof...

Risk aversion is a common behavior universal to humans and animals alike. Economists have traditionally defined risk preferences by the curvature of the utility function. Psychologists and behavioral economists also make use of concepts such as loss aversion and probability weighting to model risk aversion. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that loss aversion has its origins in relatively an...

In riskless intertemporal choice, experimental studies suggest that a decision maker prefers smoothing a utility distribution implied by a sequence of outcomes. This paper extends, in an axiomatic framework, this notion of utility smoothing to a stochastic setting. We show that such an application can provide an axiomatic model of loss aversion in dynamic choice under uncertainty, which contras...

Building on Kihlstrom and Mirman (1974)’s formulation of risk aversion in the case of multidimensional utility functions, we study the effect of risk aversion on optimal behavior in a general consumer’s maximization problem under uncertainty. We completely characterize the relationship between changes in risk aversion and classical demand theory. We show that the effect of risk aversion on opti...