A Theory of Regret and Information

Following Quiguin (1994), we propose a general model of preferences that accounts for individuals\' regret concerns. By confronting the commonly-accepted additive and multiplicative regret utility functions to this model, we establish certain characteristics that these utility functions require to be in conformity with our preferences model. Equally, as regret is intrinsically related to the concept of information about the foregone alternatives, we generalize our framework so that it can accomodate any information structure. We show that the less informative that structure is, the higher the utility of a regretful individual. This result means that an individual prefers not to be exposed to ex post information about the foregone alternatives. We also focus on information value, and consider two cases. That of flexibility, where information arrives before the choice and can be used to determine the optimal strategy; that of non-flexibility, where information arrives after the choice. We show that information value is negative when there is no flexibility, and that it can also be negative when there is flexibility., information, choice under uncertainty, bivariate risk aversion

One Theory For Two Risk Premia

Generally, in the standard presentation of the expected utility model, the risk premium represents how much a risk-averse decision maker is ready to pay to have a risk eliminated. Here, however, we introduce a different risk premium: how much should a risk (which could be the return on a financial asset) yield to be acceptable to a risk-averse decision maker. Although our risk premium is derived from the Pratt bid price, it should not be confused with it: the Pratt bid price represents the monetary compensation of a risk. The standard risk premium refers to risk-avoidance; our risk premium, however, refers to risk-taking. We then reanalyse the main results concerning risk aversion under expected utility using this risk premium tool and deduce its main properties.choices under uncertainty, expected utility, risk aversion, risk premium.