Outlier Blindness: A Neurobiological Foundation for Neglect of Financial Risk
61 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2020 Last revised: 26 Jan 2021
Date Written: January 26, 2021
Abstract
How do people record information about the outcomes they observe in their environment? Building on a well-established neuroscientific framework, we propose a model in which people are hampered in their perception of outcomes that they expect to seldom encounter. We provide experimental evidence for such ‘outlier blindness’ and discuss how it provides a microfoundation for neglected tail risk by investors in financial markets.
Keywords: Tail risk, Imprecise perception, Efficient coding, Adaptation, Decision making under uncertainty, Behavioral finance, Neuroeconomics, Experiments
JEL Classification: C91, D87, G41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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