Behavioral Biases and Firm Behavior : Evidence from Kenyan Retail Shops

Kremer, Michael ; Lee, Jean ; Robinson, Jonathan ; Rostapshova, Olga

American Economic Association

关键词: firm behavior;    risk;    uncertainty;    life cycle models;    saving;   

DOI  :  10.1257/aer.103.3.362

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Many subjects in lab experiments exhibit small-stakes risk aversion, consistent with loss aversion. Those with greater math skills are less likely to show small-stakes risk aversion. We argue that departures from expected utility maximization may help explain why many firms in developing countries leave high expected return investments unexploited. We show that among a sample of Kenyan shopkeepers, inventories are negatively associated with small-stakes risk aversion and positively associated with math skills.