An experimental investigation of social risk preferences for health

Arthur Attema, Olivier L’Haridon and Gijs Kuilen
Additional contact information
Olivier L’Haridon: Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM -UMR 6211, France and Institut Universitaire de France
Gijs Kuilen: Tilburg University

Theory and Decision, 2023, vol. 95, issue 3, No 2, 379-403

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, we use the risk apportionment technique of Eeckhoudt, Rey and Schlesinger (2007) to study higher order risk preferences for others’ health as well as ex-ante and ex-post inequality preferences for social risky distributions, and their interaction. In an experiment on a sample of university students acting as impartial spectators, we observe risk aversion towards social health losses and a dislike of ex-ante inequality. In addition, evidence for ex-post inequality seeking is much weaker than evidence for ex-ante inequality aversion. Because ex-ante inequality aversion is unrelated to risk aversion, we conclude that simple forms of utilitarianism are not relevant for individual judgment of social risk over health. Last, our investigation of precautionary distribution, which would occur when one particular group in the society suffers from background health risk, shows substantial polarization of preferences.

Keywords: Social risk; Ex-ante social welfare; Ex-post social welfare; Risk apportionment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11238-023-09928-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: An experimental investigation of social risk preferences for health (2023)
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:kap:theord:v:95:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11238-023-09928-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/11238/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11238-023-09928-w

Access Statistics for this article

Theory and Decision is currently edited by Mohammed Abdellaoui

More articles in Theory and Decision from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().