• norsk
    • English
  • English 
    • norsk
    • English
  • Login
View Item 
  •   Home
  • Norges Handelshøyskole
  • Department of Economics
  • The Choice Lab - Master thesis
  • View Item
  •   Home
  • Norges Handelshøyskole
  • Department of Economics
  • The Choice Lab - Master thesis
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Are we more rational when it matters more? : a study of decision-making under risk among university students in Dar Es Salaam

Skjelbred, Siv-Elisabeth
Master thesis
Thumbnail
View/Open
Skjelbred 2012.PDF (404.5Kb)
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/169395
Date
2012
Metadata
Show full item record
Collections
  • The Choice Lab - Master thesis [18]
Abstract
This thesis explores whether there is a difference in the rationality of the decisions at high- and low-stake levels. The rationality of the decisions are measured in two dimensions, the quality of individual decisions, measured by first order stochastic dominance (FOSD), and the quality of a set of decisions, or consistency, measured by the Critical Cost Efficiency Index (CCEI). The thesis introduces the term strict rationality for decisions that are both consistent and non-dominated.

The analysis is based on a lab experiment carried out at University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in which the participants were bachelor students at the university. The effect of high-stake is studied by a treatment and control experiment, where the treated subjects received higher incentives in a decision making setting than the control group. The lab-experiment uses a graphical tool-kit developed by Choi, Gale, Fishman and Kariv (2007a) designed to investigate the economical preferences of individuals.

The thesis discusses four theories for the effect of incentives: the standard view, the learning view, the effort view and the psychological view. The main finding of this thesis is that high-stake subjects spend on average more time on each decision, which for some subgroups, extravert subjects and low-IQ subjects, translate into more strictly rational decisions. Furthermore the thesis finds that the subjects are in general making quite rational decisions, considering the unfamiliar situation and tool-kit. Furthermore there is a significant learning effect as the subjects make less dominated decisions in the middle decisions than in the early decisions.

Contact Us | Send Feedback

Privacy policy
DSpace software copyright © 2002-2019  DuraSpace

Service from  Unit
 

 

Browse

ArchiveCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDocument TypesJournalsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDocument TypesJournals

My Account

Login

Statistics

View Usage Statistics

Contact Us | Send Feedback

Privacy policy
DSpace software copyright © 2002-2019  DuraSpace

Service from  Unit