Risk Attitudes of Children and Adults : Choices over Small and Large Probability Gains and Losses
| dc.contributor.author | Harbaugh, William | |
| dc.contributor.author | Krause, Kate | |
| dc.contributor.author | Vesterlund, Lise | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2005-03-25T19:17:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2005-03-25T19:17:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2001-11-05 | |
| dc.description | 45 p. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | In this paper we examine how risk attitudes change with age. We present participants from age 5 to 64 with choices between simple gambles and the expected value of the gambles. The gambles are over both gains and losses, and vary in the probability of the non-zero payoff. Surprisingly, we find that many participants are risk seeking when faced with high-probability prospects over gains and risk averse when faced with small-probability prospects. Over losses we find the exact opposite. Children’s choices are consistent with the underweighting of low-probability events and the overweighting of high-probability ones. This tendency diminishes with age, and on average adults appear to use the objective probability when evaluating risky prospects. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Preferences Network of the MacArthur Foundation. | en |
| dc.format.extent | 307657 bytes | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Experimental Economics 5(1): 53-84. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/694 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.subject | Probability weighting | en |
| dc.subject | Subjective expected utility | en |
| dc.subject | Prospect theory | en |
| dc.subject | Children | en |
| dc.subject | Risk | en |
| dc.title | Risk Attitudes of Children and Adults : Choices over Small and Large Probability Gains and Losses | en |
| dc.type | Article | en |