1,721,212 research outputs found
Risk aversion in two-period rent-seeking games
Full text linkThis work analyzes a two-period rent-seeking game, with the aim of studying the effect of risk aversion on the optimal choices made by the rent-seekers. We first prove that the equilibrium in two-period rent-seeking games always is unique. The analysis also shows that more risk aversion reduces the investment in the rent-seeking game in a two-period framework without introducing the additional condition of prudence, required in one-period models. Similarly, the introduction of a risky rent, instead of a given rent, implies, in the two-period framework, a reduction in investment under the condition that the rent-seekers are risk averse. Moreover, with risk aversion, larger first-period wealth increases investment in the rent-seeking game and larger second-period wealth reduces it. When both first-period and second-period wealth increase, investment in the rent-seeking game declines if the rent-seeker is risk averse and imprudent. Lastly, when a risky level of second-period wealth is introduced, the rent-seeker increases (reduces) investment in the rent-seeking game if he is risk averse and prudent (imprudent)
Subsidizing risk prevention
No full textThis work examines the effects of different kinds of subsidies on risk prevention from a theoretical standpoint. We show that both a subsidy on the cost of prevention activities and a subsidy on wealth have ambiguous effects on the level of present contemporaneous prevention. Similar kinds of subsidies have however increasing effects on the level of advance prevention and, under plausible assumptions, on future levels of contemporaneous prevention. We also show that social security subsidies may have decreasing effects on prevention activities while a kind of reverse social security has an increasing effects on them. This indicates that there is a trade-off between the social security aim of mitigating the negative consequences of bad events and the prevention aim of incentivizing choices which reduce the probability that these bad events occur
Variability in punishment, risk preferences and crime deterrence
No full textThis work studies for the first time the effect on crime deterrence of variability in punishment under different assumptions on criminals risk preferences. We show that when criminals are risk averse, greater variability in punishment reduces the incentive to commit crimes, and that the opposite holds in the case of risk loving. The linkages between certainty of punishment, initial wealth and the incentive to commit crimes are also analyzed. We then analyze the effects of greater variability in punishment on deterrence policies founded on punishment severity, showing that this effect is positive if criminals are prudent and negative if they are imprudent. Lastly, we analyze for the first time variability in punishment as an instrument of deterrence policy. This analysis determines the optimal level of variability in the two cases of homogeneity and heterogeneity in risk preference
A note on changes in additive risky benefits and risky costs
No full textWe introduce a distinction between additive risky benefits and additive risky costs, showing that it is relevant in determining decision maker choices in the presence of changes in risk. Results obtained show the specific role of the order of risk change when facing the two types of risk. Similarities and differences with the case of multiplicative risks are discussed. Moreover, the analysis is performed in two models studying respectively saving and self-protection and provides new applied results for both, some with reference to background risks
Optimal saving and health prevention
No full textThis paper examines contemporaneous choices of saving and health prevention under a two-argument utility of wealth and health. Unlike the traditional approach to modelling the cost of prevention as a decline in wealth, health prevention here is assumed to mainly reduce current health level in exchange for a lower probability of contracting a disease in the future. We show that the optimal levels of the two instruments of risk management can move either in the same direction or in opposite directions. One key element in distinguishing these two cases is whether a decision maker is correlation averse or correlation prone. Together with the relative importance of substitution effect over income effect on saving, the sign of correlation attitude is also relevant in determining the reaction of optimal saving and health prevention when the interest rate changes. Lastly, several combinations of preferences in different aspects are provided, which lead to unambiguous effects of a background risk in wealth on the two optimal choices
Le parole delle relazioni sociali: due decadi con il modello delle categorie linguistiche.
No full textThe linguistic category model (LCM) has provided a key impulse to the study of language in social psychology. In the present paper we review the studies that have employed this model as methodological and conceptual tool to analyse the role of language in social-psychological processes. To this aim, we propose an organisation of these studies on the base of intraindividual, interpersonal and intergroup levels. We then show that, transversely to these levels, linguistic categories could be analysed as devises strategically employed to create a representation of reality functional to specific communicative goals. Finally, the potential of the LCM for the study of the interface between cognition, motivation and behaviour is discussed
On the relationship between comparisons of risk aversion of different orders
No full textWe show conditions which ensure that the comparisons between risk aversion of different orders of two decision makers are related. In particular, we derive a condition ensuring that greater downside risk aversion implies greater risk aversion and a different condition ensuring that the opposite implication holds. We then generalize these results to higher order greater risk aversion, obtaining conditions which make it possible to infer the direction of the comparison for risk aversion of a given order from the knowledge of the direction for a different order. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Changes in multiplicative risks and optimal portfolio choice: new interpretations and results
No full textThis paper reconsiders the conditions determining the optimal response of a decision maker in case of stochastic changes in multiplicative risks. In particular, we focus on an optimal portfolio choice where the return of the risky asset exhibits an Nth-degree risk increase. We provide two interpretations of the conditions analyzed. The first interpretation involves a comparison between the elasticities with respect to the investment in the risky asset of the Nth derivative of the utility function and of the distance between the Nth moments of the two risks. The second interpretation refers to the direction of the change in the utility premium when the investment in the risky asset changes. We then study the linkages between the conditions determining optimal responses of risky investment in the case of risk increases of different degrees. We show that, under some assumptions, the optimal behavior of an agent in the case of Nth degree risk increase makes it possible to infer agent’s behavior in case of risk increases of lower degrees
The burden of women’s face appearance: how morality, competence, as well as attractiveness perceived from women’s faces affect their chances of getting a job.
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