Choice under uncertainty and the economics of information - Choice under uncertainty - The Von Neumann-Morgenstern Expected Utility model

4 important questions on Choice under uncertainty and the economics of information - Choice under uncertainty - The Von Neumann-Morgenstern Expected Utility model

The central premise of the formal economic theory of choice between uncertain alternatives, advanced by von Neumann and Morgenstern, is that people choose the alternative with the highest expected utility; this is:

The expected utility of a gamble is the expected value pf utility over all possible outcomes.

The key insight of the Von Neumann-Morgenstern theory is that the expected values of the outcomes of a set of alternatives need not have the same ranking as the expected utilities of the alternatives. This is because utility is assumed to e a concave function of total wealth, and said to exhibit diminishing marginal utility, which is:

For a utility function defined on wealth, one in which the marginal utility declines as wealth rises. (the more wealth a consumer has, the smaller wil be the increase in his utility caused by a 1-unit increase in wealth)

A perrons who is risk averse would always refuse a fair gamble. This is a gamble:

Whose expected value is zero.
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A person is said to be risk neutral, if:

He is generally indifferent between accepting or refusing a fair gamble. His preferences are described by a utility function with constant marginal utility of wealth.

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