Picking Pennies

78 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2016 Last revised: 17 Jun 2021

See all articles by Elise Payzan-LeNestour

Elise Payzan-LeNestour

University of New South Wales; Financial Research Network (FIRN)

Date Written: October 12, 2019

Abstract

People often expose themselves to negative tail risk by taking on losing bets in which randomly-occurring major losses eradicate all previous gains. Why is this? Here I present evidence from a collection of laboratory experiments aimed at testing several plausible causal explanations.The evidence suggests that one important determinant of this behavior is an urge to gamble despite a desire to stop. These findings highlight the importance of purely motivational factors (alongside and independent of cognitive factors) in helping to understand how people respond to negative tail risk.

Keywords: tail risk, self-control, gambling, craving, neuroeconomics, neurofinance

JEL Classification: C91, D83, D87, G02, G11

Suggested Citation

Payzan-LeNestour, Elise, Picking Pennies (October 12, 2019). UNSW Business School Research Paper No. 2016 BFIN 02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2793822 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2793822

Elise Payzan-LeNestour (Contact Author)

University of New South Wales ( email )

Australian School of Business
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.elisepayzan.com/

Financial Research Network (FIRN)

C/- University of Queensland Business School
St Lucia, 4071 Brisbane
Queensland
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.firn.org.au

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