Measuring ambiguity attitude: (Extended) multiplier preferences for the American and the Dutch population

Aurelien Baillon (), Han Bleichrodt, Zhenxing Huang () and Rogier Potter van Loon ()
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Zhenxing Huang: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Rogier Potter van Loon: Erasmus University Rotterdam

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2017, vol. 54, issue 3, No 4, 269-281

Abstract: Abstract Empirical studies of ambiguity aversion often use measures that are not grounded in theory. This paper shows how a theoretically-founded measure of ambiguity aversion can be derived from Hansen and Sargent’s theory of multiplier preferences. Multiplier preferences are used in macroeconomics to capture model uncertainty. At the micro level, they have not been applied yet, because they do not permit ambiguity seeking, which is usually observed for a substantial proportion of subjects. We give a preference foundation for (extended) multiplier preferences accommodating both ambiguity aversion and ambiguity seeking and we propose a simple method to measure them using matching probabilities. We illustrate our method in two large representative samples (Dutch and American) and obtain the first micro estimates of multiplier preferences.

Keywords: Ambiguity; Multiplier preferences; Robustness; Measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11166-017-9260-4

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