Ambiguity without a state space

  • David S. Ahn

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    71 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Many decisions involve both imprecise probabilities and intractable states of the world. Objective expected utility assumes unambiguous probabilities; subjective expected utility assumes a completely specified state space. This paper analyses a third domain of preference: sets of consequential lotteries. Using this domain, we develop a theory of objective ambiguity without explicit reference to any state space. We characterize a representation that integrates a non-linear transformation of first-order expected utility with respect to a second-order measure. The concavity of the transformation and the weighting of the measure capture ambiguity aversion. We propose a definition for comparative ambiguity aversion.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)3-28
    Number of pages26
    JournalReview of Economic Studies
    Volume75
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jan 2008

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