Who really wants to be a millionaire? Estimates of risk aversion from gameshow data

Roger Hartley, Gauthier Lanot and Ian Walker ()
Additional contact information
Roger Hartley: University of Manchester

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyses the behaviour of contestants in one of the most popular TV gameshows ever to estimate risk aversion. This gameshow has a number of features that makes it well suited for our analysis: the format is extremely straightforward, it involves no strategic decision-making, we have a large number of observations, and the prizes are cash and paid immediately, and cover a large range – from £100 up to £1 million. Our data sources have the virtue that we are able to check the representativeness of the gameshow participants. Even though the CRRA model is extremely restrictive we find that a coefficient or relative risk aversion which is close to unity fits the data across a wide range of wealth remarkably well.

Keywords: Risk aversion; gameshow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 C93 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-fmk and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... s/2008/twerp_747.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: WHO REALLY WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? ESTIMATES OF RISK AVERSION FROM GAMESHOW DATA (2014)
Working Paper: Who really wants to be a millionaire? Estimates of risk aversion from gameshow data (2006)
Working Paper: Who Really Wants to be a Millionaire? Estimates of Risk Aversion from Gameshow Data (2006)
Working Paper: Who really wants to be a millionaire? Estimates of risk aversion from gameshow data (2006)
Working Paper: Who Really Wants to be a Millionaire? Estimates of Risk Aversion from Gameshow Data (2005)
Working Paper: Who Really Wants to be a Millionaire: Estimates of Risk Aversion from Game Show Data (2005)
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:wrk:warwec:747

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Margaret Nash ().