Arbeitspapier

Strength of preference and decision making under risk

Influential economic approaches as random utility models or quantal-response equilibria assume a monotonic relation between error rates and choice difficulty or "strength of preference", in line with widespread evidence from discrimination tasks in psychology and neuroscience. However, while the latter define difficulty through objective dimensions (weight, length, etc), for economic decisions under risk the appropriate dimension remains unclear, with candidates including payoff-irrelevant numerical magnitudes. The very existence of the effects remains largely untested, because fitting models which assume such relations to data simply produces spurious findings. We provide a systematic empirical validation relying on two parsimonious experimental designs. Strength-of-preference effects are explained by expected values if objectively-correct answers exist, and by cardinal differences in independently-estimated utilities for preferential choices. Numerical magnitudes produce additional but minor effects. Finally, response times are inversely related to strength of preference, confirming that the observed relations are not "as if" explanations.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Working Paper ; No. 330

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
Thema
stochastic choice
strength of preference
decision errors
risk attitude
choice difficulty

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Alós-Ferrer, Carlos
Garagnani, Michele
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
University of Zurich, Department of Economics
(wo)
Zurich
(wann)
2020

DOI
doi:10.5167/uzh-172509
Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:41 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Alós-Ferrer, Carlos
  • Garagnani, Michele
  • University of Zurich, Department of Economics

Entstanden

  • 2020

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