Risk preferences and development revisited
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We obtain rich measures of the risk preferences of a sample of Vietnamese farmers, and revisit the link between risk preferences and economic well-being. Far from being particularly risk averse, our farmers are on average risk neutral and, thus, more risk tolerant than typical Western subject populations. This generalises recent findings indicating that students in poorer countries are more risk tolerant than students in richer countries to a general population sample. Risk aversion is, furthermore, negatively correlated with income within our sample, but does not correlate with wealth. This also casts doubt on high levels of risk aversion causing failure to adopt new technologies, which we discuss.
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Lower income is associated with increased loss aversion.
“Indeed, lower income is associated with increased loss aversion (Vieider et al. 2019).”
From Poverty and economic decision making: a review of scarcity theory (2022) · cites this paper as Vieider et al. 2019
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“This type of evidence, however, does not lend itself to comparison with Western populations, which generally have much lower risk exposure—over-insuring even modest risks is all too common in the West (Sydnor 2010).”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Poverty and economic decision making: a review of scarcity theory
de Bruijn, E.-J., & Antonides, G. (2022) · Theory and Decision · doi:10.1007/s11238-021-09802-7 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
- Authors
- Vieider, F. M., Martinsson, P., Nam, P. K., & Truong, N.
- Affiliations
- Ghent University (BE)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (VN)
- European School of Management and Technology (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Vieider, Ferdinand M.
- Venue
- Theory and Decision
- Published
- 2018-10-12
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-21
- ISSN
- 0040-5833 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-7187
- OpenAlex
- W2898015686
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 3.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Theory and Decision (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- University of Reading
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Agricultural risk and resilience
- Keywords
- risk preferences, risk aversion, risk neutrality, risk tolerance, farmers, economic well-being, income, wealth, technology adoption, cross-national comparison, Vietnam
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