Did you know? By making a gift to AgEcon Search, you are helping ensure that our small non-profit continues to provide free full-text access to 15,000 visitors a day from 170+ countries

Files

Abstract

Assuming that an individual's rank in the wealth distribution is the only factor determining the individual's wellbeing, we analyze the individual's risk preferences in relation to gaining or losing rank, rather than the individual's risk preferences towards gaining or losing absolute wealth. We show that in this characterization of preferences, a high-ranked individual is more willing than a low-ranked individual to take risks that can provide him with a rise in rank: relative risk aversion with respect to rank in the wealth distribution is a decreasing function of rank. This result is robust to incorporating (the level of) absolute wealth in the individual's utility function.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History