Testing the descriptive performance of the rank-dependent utility in the domain of health profiles


Autoria(s): Abellán, José Mª; Pinto, José Luis
Contribuinte(s)

Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament d'Economia i Empresa

Data(s)

15/09/2005

Resumo

Expected utility theory (EUT) has been challenged as a descriptive theoryin many contexts. The medical decision analysis context is not an exception.Several researchers have suggested that rank dependent utility theory (RDUT)may accurately describe how people evaluate alternative medical treatments.Recent research in this domain has addressed a relevant feature of RDU models-probability weighting-but to date no direct test of this theoryhas been made. This paper provides a test of the main axiomatic differencebetween EUT and RDUT when health profiles are used as outcomes of riskytreatments. Overall, EU best described the data. However, evidence on theediting and cancellation operation hypothesized in Prospect Theory andCumulative Prospect Theory was apparent in our study. we found that RDUoutperformed EU in the presentation of the risky treatment pairs in whichthe common outcome was not obvious. The influence of framing effects onthe performance of RDU and their importance as a topic for future researchis discussed.

Identificador

http://hdl.handle.net/10230/569

Idioma(s)

eng

Direitos

L'accés als continguts d'aquest document queda condicionat a l'acceptació de les condicions d'ús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commons

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/</a>

Palavras-Chave #Labour, Public, Development and Health Economics #expected utility #health outcomes #medical decision-making
Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper