Rather doomed than uncertain: risk attitudes and transmissive behavior under asymptomatic infection

Konstantin Matthies and Flavio Toxvaerd ()
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Konstantin Matthies: Amazon Japan G.K.
Flavio Toxvaerd: University of Cambridge

Economic Theory, 2023, vol. 76, issue 1, No 1, 44 pages

Abstract: Abstract We analyze the relation between individuals’ risk aversion and their willingness to expose themselves to infection when faced with an asymptomatic infectious disease. We show that in a high prevalence environment, increasing individuals’ risk aversion increases their propensity to engage in transmissive behavior. The reason for this result is that as risk aversion increases, exposure which leads to infection with certainty becomes relatively more attractive than the uncertain payoffs from protected behavior. We provide evidence from a laboratory experiment which is consistent with our theoretical findings.

Keywords: Economic epidemiology; Risk aversion; Asymptomatic infection; Rational fatalism; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00199-022-01448-y

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