We reconsider the decomposition of the comparative statics effect of a factor price increase on (unconditional) factor demand into a substitution and a size (or level) effect. While for the own price effect the substitution effect and the size effect go into the same negative direction, the...

We provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of probability weighting on optimal insurance demand in a unified framework. We identify decreasing relative overweighting as a new local condition on the probability weighting function that is useful for comparative static analysis. We discuss...

Given the possibility to modify the probability of a loss, will a profit-maximizing insurer engage in loss prevention or is it in his interest to increase the loss probability? This paper investigates this question. First, we calculate the expected profit maximizing loss probability within an...

Many studies document failures of expected utility's key assumption, the independence axiom. Here, we show that independence can be decomposed into two distinct axioms - betweenness and homotheticity - and that these two axioms are necessary and sufficient for independence. Thus, independence...

Consider a finite data set where each observation consists of a bundle of contingent consumption chosen by an agent from a constraint set of such bundles. We develop a general procedure for testing the consistency of this data set with a broad class of models of choice under risk and under...

Most theories of risky choice postulate that a decision maker maximizes the expectation of a Bernoulli (or utility or similar) function. We tour 60 years of empirical search and conclude that no such functions have yet been found that are useful for out-of-sample prediction. Nor do we find...

We develop a nonparametric procedure, called the lattice method, for testing the consistency of contingent consumption data with a broad class of models of choice under risk and under uncertainty. Our method allows for risk loving and elation seeking behavior and can be used to calculate, via...

Cars have long been considered goods that symbolize status, yet few studies integrate the impact of symbolic and affective motives on the car buying decisions, with even fewer studies focusing on the influence of these motives on Eastern European consumers' buying behaviour. The aim of this...

This paper analyzes the determinants of health insurance enrollment and health expenditure in Ghana using micro data from wave 7 of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 7) with emphasis on the role of risk preferences and the availability of health facilities in one's own community, neither...

Twenty years ago, Peter Moffatt (2002) posed this general question: “Is Giffen behavior compatible with the axioms of consumer theory?” The present paper addresses this very same question, but only as it applies to the Wold-Juréen (1953) utility function. In this paper, we demonstrate that...