Risk Aversion as a Perceptual Bias

Mel Win Khaw, Ziang Li and Michael Woodford

No 23294, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The theory of expected utility maximization (EUM) explains risk aversion as due to diminishing marginal utility of wealth. However, observed choices between risky lotteries are difficult to reconcile with EUM: for example, in the laboratory, subjects' responses on individual trials involve a random element, and cannot be predicted purely from the terms offered; and subjects often appear to be too risk averse with regard to small gambles (while still accepting sufficiently favorable large gambles) to be consistent with any utility-of-wealth function. We propose a unified explanation for both anomalies, similar to the explanation given for related phenomena in the case of perceptual judgments: they result from judgments based on imprecise (and noisy) mental representation of the decision situation. In this model, risk aversion is predicted without any need for a nonlinear utility-of-wealth function, and instead results from a sort of perceptual bias — but one that represents an optimal Bayesian decision, given the limitations of the mental representation of the situation. We propose a specific quantitative model of the mental representation of a simple lottery choice problem, based on other evidence regarding numerical cognition, and test its ability to explain the choice frequencies that we observe in a laboratory experiment.

JEL-codes: C91 D3 D81 D87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-upt
Note: EFG ME
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Working Paper: Risk Aversion as a Perceptual Bias (2017)
Working Paper: Risk Aversion as a Perceptual Bias (2017)
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