Off the Charts: Massive Unexplained Heterogeneity in a Global Study of Ambiguity Attitudes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: l'Haridon, Olivier; Vieider, Ferdinand M.; Aycinena, Diego; Bandur, Agustinus; Belianin, Alexis; Cingl, Lubomir; Kothiyal, Amit; Martinsson, Peter
• 署名单位: Universite de Rennes; University of Reading; National University of Rosario; Universitas Bina Nusantara; HSE University (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Prague University of Economics & Business; Max Planck Society; University of Gothenburg; Linkoping University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00724
• 发表日期: 2018-07
• 页码: 664-677
• 关键词: gender-differences; RISK; uncertainty; aversion; gains; BEHAVIOR; preferences; decisions; models

摘要

Ambiguity attitudes have been prominently used in economic models, but we still know little about their demographic correlates or their generalizability beyond the West. We analyze the ambiguity attitudes of almost 3,000 students across thirty countries. For gains, we find ambiguity aversion everywhere, while ambiguity aversion is much weaker for losses. Ambiguity attitudes change systematically with probabilities for both gains and losses. Much of the between-country variation can be explained through a few macroeconomic characteristics. In contrast, we find massive unexplained variation at the individual level. We also find much unexplained heterogeneity in individual responses to different decision tasks.