In this thesis I apply the concepts of Behavioral Economics to the analysis of the individual health care behavior. In the first chapter I provide a theoretical explanation of the link between loss aversion and health anxiety leading to infrequent preventive testing. In the second chapter I analyze this link empirically based on the general population questionnaire study. In the third chapter I theoretically explore the effects of motivational crowding-in and crowding-out induced by external or self-rewards for the self-control involving tasks such as weight loss or smoking cessation.<p><p>Understanding psychological factors behind the reluctance to use preventive testing is a significant step towards a more efficient health care policy. Some people visit doctors very rarely because of a fear to receive negative results of medical inspection, others prefer to resort to medical services in order to prevent any diseases. Recent research in the field of Behavioral Economics suggests that human's preferences may be significantly influenced by the choice of a reference point. In the first chapter I study the link between loss aversion and the frequently observed tendency to avoid useful but negative information (the ostrich effect) in the context of preventive health care choices. I consider a model with reference-dependent utility that allows to characterize how people choose their health care strategy, namely, the frequency of preventive checkups. In this model an individual lives for two periods and faces a trade-off. She makes a choice between delaying testing until the second period with the risk of a more costly treatment in the future, or learning a possibly unpleasant diagnosis today, that implies an emotional loss but prevents an illness from further development. The model shows that high loss aversion decreases the frequency of preventive testing due to the fear of a bad diagnosis. Moreover, I show that under certain conditions increasing risk of illness discourages testing.<p><p>In the second chapter I provide empirical support for the model predictions. I use a questionnaire study of a representative sample of the Dutch population to measure variables such as loss aversion, testing frequency and subjective risk. I consider the undiagnosed non-symptomatic population and concentrate on medical tests for four illnesses that include hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung disease and cancer. To measure loss aversion I employ a sequence of lottery questions formulated in terms of gains and losses of life years with respect to the current subjective life expectancy. To relate this measure of loss aversion to the testing frequency I use a two-part modeling approach. This approach distinguishes between the likelihood of participation in testing and the frequency of tests for those who decided to participate. The main findings confirm that loss aversion, as measured by lottery choices in terms of life expectancy, is significantly and negatively associated with the decision to participate in preventive testing for hypertension, diabetes and lung disease. Higher loss aversion also leads to lower frequency of self-tests for cancer among women. The effect is more pronounced in magnitude for people with higher subjective risk of illness.<p><p>In the third chapter I explore the phenomena of crowding-out and crowding-in of motivation to exercise self-control. Various health care choices, such as keeping a diet, reducing sugar consumption (e.g. in case of diabetes) or abstaining from smoking, require costly self-control efforts. I study the long-run and short-run influence of external and self-rewards offered to stimulate self-control. In particular, I develop a theoretical model based on the combination of the dual-self approach to the analysis of the time-inconsistency problem with the principal-agent framework. I show that the psychological property of disappointment aversion (represented as loss aversion with respect to the expected outcome) helps to explain the differences in the effects of rewards when a person does not perfectly know her self-control costs. The model is based on two main assumptions. First, a person learns her abstention costs only if she exerts effort. Second, observing high abstention costs brings disutility due to disappointment (loss) aversion. The model shows that in the absence of external reward an individual will exercise self-control only when her confidence in successful abstention is high enough. However, observing high abstention costs will discourage the individual from exerting effort in the second period, i.e. will lead to the crowding-out of motivation. On the contrary, choosing zero effort in period 1 does not reveal the self-control costs. Hence, this preserves the person's self-confidence helping her to abstain in the second period. Such crowding-in of motivation is observed for the intermediate level of self-confidence. I compare this situation to the case when an external reward is offered in the first period. The model shows that given a sufficiently low self-confidence external reward may lead to abstention in both periods. At the same time, without it a person would not abstain in any period. However, for an intermediate self-confidence, external reward may lead to the crowding-out of motivation. For the same level of self-confidence, the absence of such reward may cause crowding-in. Overall, the model generates testable predictions and helps to explain contradictory empirical findings on the motivational effects of different types of rewards. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cultural Finance är ett relativt nytt forskningsområde som belyser att kultur kan vara en nyckelfaktor till att förklara individers investeringsbeteende. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om kultur kan vara en förklarande faktor till individers investeringsbeteende.  En jämförandestudie genomfördes där svenska (n=124) och spanska (n=109) investerare undersöktes. Studien baserades på kvantitativa enkäter som publicerades i forum med inriktning på investeringar. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av ett Mann Whitney U test i SPSS version 1.0.0.1275 för att testa om det går att urskilja skillnader i investeringsbeteende mellan Sverige och Spanien. Resultatet visade på att det gick att urskilja skillnader i investeringsbeteende i risktagande och individers motvilja att förlora pengar och att dessa skillnader kan bero på kultur. / Cultural Finance is a relatively new research area that highlights that culture can be a critical factor in explaining the investment behavior of individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether culture can be an explanatory factor for individuals' investment behavior. A comparative study was conducted in which Swedish (n = 124) and Spanish (n = 109) investors were surveyed. The study was based on quantitative questionnaires published in forums focusing on investments. The results were analyzed using a Mann Whitney U test in SPSS version 1.0.0.1275 to test whether differences in investment behavior between Sweden and Spain can be discerned. The results showed that it was possible to discern differences in investment behavior in risk-taking and individuals' reluctance to lose money and that these differences may be due to culture.

People use shortcuts to make decisions to efficiently deal with a large volume of information. Linear thinking is one shortcut and it contributes to exponential growth bias which means underestimation of exponential growth values. This study examined differences in exponential growth bias in the context of the stock market and COVID-19 cases. Moreover, this research analyzed correlation between exponential growth bias and worry for health and for the economy in the contexts of COVID-19 and stock market. A total of 120 participants completed an online survey in which they were randomly assigned to the COVID-19 or stock market group. A 2 x 3 repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant differences depending on the group. Moreover, ANOVA showed that bias increased in line with the increase in the percentages analyzed for both groups. Exploratory Pearson analysis showed that there was a significant negative correlation between worry for the economy and exponential growth bias of 15% and 40% growth scenarios in COVID-19 group. There were no significant correlations between worry for the economy or health in the stock market group. The conclusion is that people use shortcuts which leads them to biased decision- making. For example, when calculating exponential values, people think linearly and it leads them to exponential growth bias, what in practice results in estimating values lower than they are. Interventions, as education with aim to reduce exponential growth bias are proposed for the future research.

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Bakgrund: Efter många år av högkonjunktur är den svenska ekonomin prognostiserad att föras in i en lågkonjunktur under 2023. Hög inflation hanteras med stigande räntor vilket påverkar investerare på flera sätt, men det finns också en rad börspsykologiska faktorer som kan ha en inverkan på investerare och deras beslut. En åldersgrupp som aldrig investerat under en lågkonjunktur är generation Z. Det är därför intressant att undersöka hur börspsykologiska faktorer påverkar generation Z:s investeringsbeslut under ingången av en lågkonjunktur. Syfte: Syftet med arbetet är därför att undersöka och åskådliggöra vilka börspsykologiska faktorer som har en påverkan på generation Z:s beslutsfattande i ingången av en lågkonjunktur.  Metod: Studien har antagit en kvantitativ insamlingsmetod med en deduktiv ansats, detta genom en genomgripande litteraturstudie följt av en enkätundersökning. Analysen har antagit ett deskriptivt förhållningssätt men har också bestått av enkel linjär regression. Slutsats: Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det finns tendenser av samtliga börspsykologiska biaser i generation Z. Av regressionsanalysen att döma går det dock endast att utläsa signifikanta samband mellan biaserna overconfidence, herding behaviour och anchoring bias mot generation Z:s investeringsbeslut under ingången av en lågkonjunktur.

Diese Dissertation besteht aus drei unabhängigen Artikeln in dem Forschungsfeld der Informationsökonomik. Ein wiederkehrendes Motiv in allen drei Artikeln ist die ambivalente Rolle von privater Information. In Kontrast zur klassischen Entscheidungstheorie, in der mehr Informationen Individuen niemals schlechter stellt, analysiere ich drei verschiedene Umgebungen, in denen mehr Konsumenteninformation die Konsumentenrente verringern kann. / This dissertation comprises three independent chapters in the field of information economics. The recurrent theme of all three chapters is the ambiguous role of information: While in standard decision theory additional information enables individuals to weakly increase utility through making better choices, I analyze three di erent environments in which more information to consumers may actually be detrimental to consumer utility.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriel Santos Alberto.pdf: 1530144 bytes, checksum: 5d3e547ec9c1168ac27b5519e48cd67d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-24 / The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the theory of psychological types and the decision-making, focusing on behavioral biases, anchoring, overconfidence, representativeness, mental accounting and loss aversion. A questionnaire was developed and 319 valid responses were obtained. We used descriptive statistics, parametric and nonparametric tests, and structural equation modeling, using IBM SPSS Statistics and AMOS. The results show that decision-making is influenced by the dimension extraversion-introversion, sensation-intuition, thinking-feeling, judgment-perception, gender, education, income and age. The extraversion-introversion dimension influence on the anchoring and loss aversion bias, sensation-intuition on the representativeness bias; thinking-feeling on the overconfidence, representativeness and loss aversion bias; judgment-perception on the overconfidence, representativeness, mental accounting and loss aversion bias; gender on the anchoring, overconfidence, representativeness, mental accounting and loss aversion bias; education on the overconfidence, representativeness and loss aversion bias; income on the anchoring, overconfidence, representativeness, mental accounting and loss aversion bias, and age on the anchoring, overconfidence, representativeness and mental accounting bias. This work contributes adding new evidence that behavior of decision makers is influenced by psychological types and therefore bias is possible to be mitigated / O objetivo do trabalho foi verificar a relação entre a teoria dos tipos psicológicos e as decisões dos indivíduos, sob a luz dos vieses comportamentais, ancoragem, excesso de confiança, representatividade, contabilidade mental e aversão a perdas. Foi elaborado um questionário e foram obtidas 319 respostas válidas. Utilizou-se de análises descritivas, teste paramétrico, não paramétrico e modelagem de equações estruturais, utilizando o IBM SPSS Statistics e o AMOS. Os resultados mostram que as tomadas de decisões são influenciadas pela dimensão extroversão-introversão, sensação-intuição, pensamento-sentimento, julgamento-percepção, gênero, escolaridade, renda e idade. A dimensão extroversão-introversão influencia no viés ancoragem e aversão a perdas; a sensação-intuição no viés representatividade, o pensamento-sentimento no viés excesso de confiança, representatividade e aversão a perdas; o julgamento-percepção no viés excesso de confiança, representatividade, contabilidade mental e aversão a perdas; o gênero no viés ancoragem, excesso de confiança, representatividade, contabilidade mental e aversão a perdas; a escolaridade com o viés excesso de confiança, representatividade e aversão a perdas; a renda com o viés ancoragem, excesso de confiança, representatividade, contabilidade mental e aversão a perdas, e a idade com o viés ancoragem, excesso de confiança, representatividade e contabilidade mental. O presente trabalho contribui agregando novas evidências da influência dos tipos psicológicos no comportamento dos tomadores de decisão, que certos tipos psicológicos estão mais propensos a certos vieses comportamentais, e, assim sendo, há possibilidade de mitigar os vieses, seja na esfera corporativa ou governamental

The purpose of this research was to explore the effects of small monetary or economic gains and/or losses on choice behavior through the use of a computerized game and to determine gain/loss ratio differences using both behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Participants (N=53) played the game in several 36 minute sessions. These sessions operated with concurrent variable-interval schedules for both rewards and penalties. Previously, asymmetrical effects of gains and losses have been identified through cognitive studies, primarily due to the work of nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1979). They found that the effect of a loss is twice (i.e., 2:1) that of a gain. Similar results have been observed in the behavioral laboratory as exemplified by the research of Rasmussen and Newland (2008), who found a 3:1 ratio for the effect of losses versus gains. The asymmetry of gains and losses was estimated behaviorally and through event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and the cognitive (Kahneman and Tversky) and behavioral (Rasmussen and Newland) discrepancy elucidated. In the game, the player moves an animated submarine around sea rocks to collect yellow coins and other treasures on the sea floor. Upon collecting a coin, one of three things can happen: The player triggers a penalty (loss), the player triggers a payoff (gain), or there is no change. The behavioral measures consisted in counting the number of clicks, reinforces, and punishers and then determining ratio differences between punished (loss) and no punished condition (gain) conditions. The obtained gain/loss ratio corresponded to an asymmetry of 2:1. Similarly ratio differences were found between male and female, virtual money and cash, risk averse versus risk seeking, and generosity versus profit behavior. Also, no ratio difference was found when players receive information about other player's performances in the game (players with information versus players without information). In electroencephalographic (EEG) studies, visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and ERPs components (e.g., P300) were examined. I found increased ERP amplitudes for the losses in relation to the gains that corresponded to the calculated behavioral asymmetry of 2:1. A correlational strategy was adopted that sought to identify neural correlates of choice consistent with cognitive and behavioral approaches. In addition, electro cortical ratio differences were observed between different sets of electrodes that corresponded to the front, middle, and back sections of the brain; differences between sessions, risk averse and risk seeking behavior and sessions with concurrent visual and auditory stimuli and only visual were also estimated.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:48:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 71050100718.pdf.jpg: 12656 bytes, checksum: 70340ae65c49c6fee3a991247dc4ef5b (MD5) 71050100718.pdf.txt: 321921 bytes, checksum: 2a3fd8e10dce647d19b0906c936496e2 (MD5) 71050100718.pdf: 1109092 bytes, checksum: fd5777ca389880dab6d98b5c7c624391 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-20T00:00:00Z / The main objective of this thesis is to test the hypothesis that utility preferences that incorporate asymmetric reactions between gains and losses generate better results, when applied to the Brazilian market, than the classic Von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility function. The asymmetric behavior can be computed through the introduction of a disappointment (or loss) aversion coefficient in the classical expected utility function, which increases the impact of losses against gains. This kind of adjustment is supported by recent developments in financial theory, specially those studies that try to solve the violations of the expected utility axioms. The analysis of the implications of such adjustment is made through the comparison of the results regarding the participation of the risky asset (stock market) in the composition of the optimum portfolio (the one that maximizes utility) generated by both types of preferences: expected utility and loss aversion utility functions. The results are then compared with real data from two types of Brazilian investors (pension funds and households) aiming at verifying the capacity of each utility function to replicate real investment data from these investors. The results of the tests show that it is not possible to reject the expected utility function as an adequate representative model for the aggregate behavior of Brazilian pension funds. However, the simulations indicate that this type of function should be rejected as an adequate model to replicate real investment decisions of Brazilian individual investors (households). The behavior of this type of investors can be better replicated by applying a loss aversion utility function. / O principal objetivo deste trabalho é analisar se o uso de preferências que incorporem assimetria na reação do investidor frente a ganhos e perdas permite gerar resultados mais coerentes com o comportamento real de investidores brasileiros na seleção de portfólios ótimos de investimento. Uma das formas de tratar o comportamento assimétrico se dá através da introdução do coeficiente de aversão a perdas (ou ao desapontamento) na função utilidade tradicional, coeficiente este que aumenta o impacto das perdas frente aos ganhos. A aplicação deste ajuste na função utilidade tradicional decorre de recentes avanços na teoria de finanças, mais especificamente daqueles estudos que buscam solucionar as violações dos axiomas da teoria da utilidade esperada, violações estas já demonstradas empiricamente através de testes de laboratório. A análise das implicações do uso deste tipo de função é feita através da comparação dos resultados quanto à participação do ativo com risco (mercado acionário) na composição do portfólio ótimo (aquele que maximiza a utilidade) do investidor gerados por dois tipos de função utilidade: tradicional e com aversão a perdas. Os resultados são comparados com dados reais de participação do mercado acionário nos investimentos totais de dois tipos de investidores brasileiros - fundos de pensão e investidores individuais - visando verificar a adequação dos resultados de cada função em relação ao comportamento destes investidores. Os resultados mostram que não é possível rejeitar a função utilidade tradicional como modelo representativo do comportamento agregado dos fundos de pensão. Por outro lado, as simulações indicam que a função utilidade tradicional deve ser rejeitada como modelo representativo do comportamento dos investidores individuais, sendo o comportamento destes investidores melhor representado por uma função que incorpora aversão a perdas.

Börsåret 2020 har varit ett unikt år som präglats av ett kraftigt börsras, men även en historiskt snabb återhämtning. Det unika händelseförloppet härrör ur en pandemi orsakad av ett coronavirus, vilket skapat nya underlag för studier av investerares beslutsfattande ur ett börspsykologiskt perspektiv. Syftet med studien var att kartlägga vilka börspsykologiska faktorer som indikerats hos investerare under pandemin. Intentionen var att undersöka huruvida det förelåg samband mellan börspsykologiska faktorer och investerares beslutsfattande. Studien har främst tillämpat en kvantitativ metod i form av en tvärsnittsdesign för att uppnå generaliserbarhet, men har även inslag av kvalitativ forskningsdesign för att erhålla en djupare förståelse. I syfte att besvara studiens forskningsfrågor har en statistisk analys i form av bivariata och multivariata linjära regressionsanalyser genomförts. Resultatet visar att samtliga undersökta börspsykologiska faktorer indikeras hos investerare och att det existerar ett flertal signifikanta samband mellan faktorerna och investerares beslutsfattande. Vidare har studien uppmärksammat en problematik i investerares självuppfattning och brister i de tillämpade testerna för börspsykologiska faktorer. Slutligen har en modell framtagits i syfte att bistå med underlag som kan öka förståelsen och medvetenheten inom ämnesområdet och således skapa bättre förutsättningar för rationella investeringsbeslut. / The stock market during 2020 has been a remarkable year that has experienced a major marketcrash, but also a historical recovery. The unique course of events derives from a pandemic causedby a coronavirus, which has generated new data for research of investors’ decision making from abehavioral finance perspective. The purpose with the research was to map biases which havebeen indicated by investors during the pandemic. The intention was also to investigate whetherthere were relationships between biases and the decision making of investors. This thesis hasmainly applied a quantitative method in the form of a cross-sectional study to achievegeneralizability, but it also has elements of qualitative research to obtain a deeper understanding.In order to answer the research questions, a statistical analysis in the form of bivariate andmultivariate linear regression models has been applied. The result concludes that all theinvestigated biases were indicated, and several significant relationships between the biases andthe decision making of the investors. Furthermore, the research has shown two problematicaspects. The first is the self-perception of investors and the second is the weaknesses of theapplied tests for biases. Finally, a model has been developed with the aim to contribute withuseful research that can create better conditions for rational investment decisions through anincreased understanding and awareness in the area of behavioral finance.