Estimating risk attitudes in Denmark: A field experiment

    Authors

    G. W. Harrison; M. I. Lau;E. E. Rutstrom

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Scand. J. Econ.

    Keywords

    risk aversion; field experiment; socio-demographic characteristics; FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKING; EXPECTED-UTILITY-THEORY; SAMPLE SELECTION; BIAS; DISCOUNT RATES; AVERSION; MODELS; ELICITATION; CALIBRATION; REWARDS; THEOREM; Economics

    Abstract

    We estimate individual risk attitudes using controlled experiments in the field in Denmark. The experiments were carried out across Denmark using a representative sample of 253 people between 19 and 75 years of age. Risk attitudes are estimated for various individuals differentiated by socio-demographic characteristics. Our results indicate that the average Dane is risk averse, and that risk neutrality is an inappropriate assumption to apply. We also find that risk attitudes vary significantly with respect to several important socio-demographic variables such as age and education. However, we do not find any effect of sex on risk attitudes.

    Journal Title

    Scandinavian Journal of Economics

    Volume

    109

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2007

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    341

    Last Page

    368

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000249199500009

    ISSN

    0347-0520

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