Collective risk taking by couples: individual vs household risk

Zheng, Jiakun and Couprie, Helene and Hopfensitz, Astrid (2022): Collective risk taking by couples: individual vs household risk.

Abstract

101 real couples participated in a controlled experimental risk taking task involving variations in household and individuals’ income risks, but controlling for ex-ante income inequal- ity. Our design disentangles the effect of household risk, of intra-household risk inequality and of ex-post pay-off inequality. We find that most couples (about 79%) did pool their risk at the household level when risks were borne symmetrically but a significant proportion of couples (about 36%) failed to do so when individual risks were borne asymmetrically. Furthermore, we find that intra-household risk inequality has a larger impact on non-married couples than married ones.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Experiment; Income pooling; Household risk taking; Inequality
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C92 - Laboratory, Group Behavior; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D19 - Other; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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