Does the More Risk‐Averse Investor hold a Less Risky Portfolio?*

George Wong

International Review of Finance, 2009, vol. 9, issue 3, 319-333

Abstract: We study the suitability of using absolute risk aversion as a measure of willingness to take risk in the Arrow–Debreu portfolio framework. We define a global measure of risk for the Arrow–Debreu portfolio, which is measured by the sensitivity of an individual's Arrow–Debreu portfolio payoff to the change in the market return. We call this measure ‘conservatism’ and show that the concept of ‘more conservative’ is stronger than that of ‘more risk‐averse.’ A higher absolute risk aversion is only necessary but not sufficient to induce a less risky Arrow–Debreu portfolio. Our results not only challenge the well‐accepted notion that a more risk‐averse investor holds a less risky portfolio, but also suggest a stronger measure – conservatism – for evaluating the riskiness of portfolio.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2443.2009.01093.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:9:y:2009:i:3:p:319-333

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1369-412X

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Finance is currently edited by Bruce D. Grundy, Naifu Chen, Ming Huang, Takao Kobayashi and Sheridan Titman

More articles in International Review of Finance from International Review of Finance Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().