Attitudes toward Uncertainty among the Poor: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

Alpaslan Akay (), Peter Martinsson, Haileselassie Medhin () and Stefan Trautmann
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Haileselassie Medhin: University of Gothenburg

No 4225, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We looked at risk and ambiguity attitudes among Ethiopian peasants in one of the poorest regions of the world and compared their attitudes to a standard Western university student sample elicited by the same decision task. Strong risk aversion and ambiguity aversion were found with the Ethiopian peasants. Ambiguity aversion was similar for peasants and students, but peasants were more risk averse. Testing for the effect of socio-economic variables on uncertainty attitudes showed that poor health increased both risk and ambiguity aversion.

Keywords: ambiguity attitudes; risk attitudes; cultural differences; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D81 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2009-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-cbe, nep-ltv, nep-neu and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - revised version published in: Theory and Decision , 2012, 73 (3), 453-464

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Working Paper: Attitudes Toward Uncertainty Among the Poor: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia (2010)
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