Parameter-Free Elicitation of Utility and Probability Weighting Functions

Mohammed Abdellaoui

Management Science, 2000, vol. 46, issue 11, 1497-1512

Abstract: This paper proposes a two-step method to successively elicit utility functions and decision weights under rank-dependent expected utility theory and its "more descriptive" version: cumulative prospect theory. The novelty of the method is that it is parameter-free, and thus elicits the whole individual preference functional without imposing any prior restriction. This method is used in an experimental study to elicit individual utility and probability weighting functions for monetary outcomes in the gain and loss domains. Concave utility functions are obtained for gains and convex utility functions for losses. The elicited weighting functions satisfy upper and lower subadditivity and are consistent with previous parametric estimations. The data also show that the probability weighting function for losses is more "elevated" than for gains.

Keywords: decision making; expected utility; rank-dependent expected utility; cumulative prospect theory; probability weighting function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (442)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.46.11.1497.12080 (application/pdf)

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:inm:ormnsc:v:46:y:2000:i:11:p:1497-1512

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().