Measuring Price Risk Aversion through Indirect Utility Functions: A Laboratory Experiment

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework to measure price risk aversion using indirect utility functions in a lab setting, and empirically tests the duality theory predicting risk preferences are consistent across utility representations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to measure price risk aversion via indirect utility functions and empirically validates the duality theory in experimental economics.

Findings

Price risk aversion is significantly greater than payoff risk aversion.

Risk preferences under expected utility theory vary with context.

Risk premium for stochastic prices exceeds that for stochastic payoffs.

Abstract

The present paper introduces a theoretical framework through which the degree of risk aversion with respect to uncertain prices can be measured through the context of the indirect utility function (IUF) using a lab experiment. First, the paper introduces the main elements of the duality theory (DT) in economics. Next, it proposes the context of IUFs as a suitable framework for measuring price risk aversion through varying prices as opposed to varying payoffs, which has been common practice in the mainstream of experimental economics. Indeed, the DT in modern microeconomics indicates that the direct utility function (DUF) and the IUF are dual to each other, implicitly suggesting that the degree of risk aversion (or risk seeking) that a given rational subject exhibits in the context of the DUF must be equivalent to the degree of risk aversion (or risk seeking) elicited through the context of the IUF. This paper tests the accuracy of this theoretical prediction through a lab experiment using a series of relevant statistical tests. This study uses the multiple price list (MPL) method, which has been one of the most popular sets of elicitation procedures in experimental economics to study risk preferences in the experimental laboratory using non-interactive settings. The key findings of this study indicate that price risk aversion (PrRA) is statistically significantly greater than payoff risk aversion (PaRA). Additionally, it is shown that the risk preferences elicited under the expected utility theory (EUT) are somewhat subject to context. Other findings imply that the risk premium (RP), as a measure of willingness to pay for insuring an uncertain situation, is statistically significantly greater for stochastic prices compared to that for stochastic payoffs. These results are robust across different MPL designs and various statistical tests that are utilized.