Universität zu Köln

Stauf, Julia (2012). Essays on Behavior under Risk and Uncertainty. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This thesis consists of four experimental studies that investigate human behavior under risk and uncertainty in different settings. While the first two studies deal with individual risky decision-making, the third and fourth study are concerned with strategic interaction. In the first paper, we show that individuals hold systematically wrong beliefs about their success probabilities in a given task. Nonetheless, we find that the average belief on the population level is quite accurate. In the second paper, we show that a number of individuals change their risk-taking behavior if their decisions additionally affect a second, passive party, and that they are influenced by the decisions of others, whereas standard theory predicts that none of these factors should have any effect. In the strategic setting in the third paper, we find that standard theory predicts actual behavior in the experiment fairly well; yet, we find that a substantial number of subjects repeatedly chooses strategies that should never be chosen according to standard theory. Finally, in the fourth study, we show that accounting for preferences for efficiency allows for a better organization of our data than standard theory alone.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Stauf, Julia julia.stauf@googlemail.com UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-50301
Date:	8 November 2012
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar
Subjects:	Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Risk and uncertainty, social preferences, behavioral economics English
Date of oral exam:	21 January 2013
Referee:	Name Academic Title Ockenfels, Axel Prof. Dr. Irlenbusch, Bernd Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/5030