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Uncertain Decisions pp 83–107Cite as

Consumption, Savings and Asset Returns with Non-Expected Utility

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Abstract

Over the last dozen years, the standard models of decision making under risk and uncertainty have come under renewed scrutiny because of their failure to describe choices observed in experimental settings; the Allais and Ellsberg paradoxes are the best known instances of descriptive failures of the (subjective) expected utility model. In addition, a number of generalizations of the expected utility model have been developed. These ‘nonexpected utility’ theories have proven useful in several ways. First, they have provided models of preference that can ‘explain’, or at least accommodate the cited experimental evidence. Equally important, they have stimulated new experimental tests of decision making in laboratory settings that should help to provide further insights into the way in which subjects make choices. In addition, they have provided a deeper understanding of the expected utility model, both at an axiomatic level and at the more practical level of clarifying why it is that the expected utility model has proven so tractable in modeling applications.

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Authors
  1. Larry G. Epstein
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Siena, Italy

    Luigi Luini

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Epstein, L.G. (1999). Consumption, Savings and Asset Returns with Non-Expected Utility. In: Luini, L. (eds) Uncertain Decisions. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5083-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5083-9_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7312-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5083-9

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