A Test of Narrow Framing and its Origin

Luigi Guiso

Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, 2015, vol. 1, issue 1, 100 pages

Abstract: I provide a test of narrow framing to explain why individuals turn down small positive expected value lotteries. Participants in a large survey have been asked whether they would accept a small lottery of winning 180 euros with probability of 1/2 or losing 100 euros with the same probability. Half of the sample, randomly selected, answered the lottery question immediately after they were asked to think about and report their subjective probability distribution of future earnings; the other half made the decision before. Consistent with narrow framing, I find that individuals that were induced to bring their earnings risk to mind before facing the decision are significantly less likely to turn it down. Furthemore, only those who actually say they are uncertain about their incomes are less likely to reject the lottery. I show that attitudes towards regret and reliance on intuition rather than reasoning are likely to drive the tendency to frame choices narrowly. Copyright Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association) 2015

Keywords: Narrow framing; Loss aversion; Intuitive thinking; Reasoning; Regret; D1; D8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: A test of narrow framing and its origin (2009)
Working Paper: A Test of Narrow Framing and its Origin (2009)
Working Paper: A Test of Narrow Framing and its Origin (2008)
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DOI: 10.1007/s40797-015-0013-8

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