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Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Measuring the Subjective Value of Risky and Ambiguous Options using Experimental Economics and Functional MRI Methods
Published on: September 19, 2012
On the stability of risk preferences: Measurement matters
Joop Adema1,2, Till Nikolka3,4, Panu Poutvaara1,2,4,5,6
1ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Poschingerstraße 5, Munich, 81679, Germany.
Abstract:
We exploit the unique design of a repeated survey experiment among students in four countries to explore the stability of risk preferences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Relative to a baseline before the pandemic, we find that self-assessed willingness to take risks decreased while the willingness to take risks in an incentivized lottery task increased, for the same sample of respondents. These findings suggest domain specificity of preferences that is partly reflected in the different measures.
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