Taming models of prospect theory in the wild? Estimation of Vlcek and Hens (2011)

  • Shortcomings revealed by experimental and theoretical researchers such as Allais (1953), Rabin (2000) and Rabin and Thaler (2001) that put the classical expected utility paradigm von Neumann and Morgenstern (1947) into question, led to the proposition of alternative and generalized utility functions, that intend to improve descriptive accuracy. The perhaps best known among those alternative preference theories, that has attracted much popularity among economists, is the so called Prospect Theory by Kahneman and Tversky (1979) and Tversky and Kahneman (1992). Its distinctive features, governed by its set of risk parameters such as risk sensitivity, loss aversion and decision weights, stimulated a series of economic and financial models that build on the previously estimated parameter values by Tversky and Kahneman (1992) to analyze and explain various empirical phenomena for which expected utility doesn't seem to offer a satisfying rationale. In this paper, after providing a brief overview of the relevant literature, we take a closer look at one of those papers, the trading model of Vlcek and Hens (2011) and analyze its implications on Prospect Theory parameters using an adopted maximum likelihood approach for a dataset of 656 individual investors from a large German discount brokerage firm. We find evidence that investors in our dataset are moderately averse to large losses and display high risk sensitivity, supporting the main assumptions of Prospect Theory.

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Metadaten
Author:Sven Thorsten Jakusch, Steffen MeyerORCiDGND, Andreas HackethalORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-416989
URL:https://ssrn.com/abstract=2845338
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2845338
Parent Title (English):SAFE working paper series ; No. 146
Series (Serial Number):SAFE working paper (146)
Publisher:SAFE
Place of publication:Frankfurt am Main
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Year of Completion:2016
Year of first Publication:2016
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2016/10/20
Tag:Investors Heterogeneity; Parameter Elicitation; Prospect Theory
Page Number:49
HeBIS-PPN:390298395
Institutes:Wirtschaftswissenschaften / Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / House of Finance (HoF)
Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Center for Financial Studies (CFS)
Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE)
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
JEL-Classification:C Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / C3 Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models / C35 Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors (Updated!)
C Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / C5 Econometric Modeling / C51 Model Construction and Estimation
C Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / C5 Econometric Modeling / C52 Model Evaluation and Selection
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht