Risk Attitudes in Medical Decisions for Others: An Experimental Approach

Alejandro Arrieta (), Ariadna García-Prado (), Paula González and Jose-Luis Pinto-Prades
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Alejandro Arrieta: Florida International University
Ariadna García-Prado: Universidad Pública de Navarra

No 16.07, Working Papers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate how risk attitudes in medical decisions for others vary across health contexts. A lab experiment was designed to elicit the risk attitudes of 257 students by assigning them the role of a physician who must decide between treatments for patients. An interval regression model was used to estimate individual coefficients of relative risk aversion, and an estimation model was used to test for the effect of type of medical decision and experiment design characteristics on elicited risk aversion. We find that: (i) risk preferences for decisions involving life expectancy are different from those involving quality of life, but risk aversion prevails in all types of medical decisions; (ii) students enrolled in health-related degrees show a higher degree of risk aversion; and (iii) real rewards for third parties (patients) make subjects less risk-averse. The results underline the importance of accounting for doctors’ attitudes towards risk in medical decision-making.

Keywords: physicians; risk aversion; health contexts; laboratory experiment; multiple price list format. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D81 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-exp, nep-hea and nep-upt
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