risk preferences in the psid: individual imputations and family covariation january 3, 2009 aea...
DESCRIPTION
Lessons from Survey-Based Measurement of Preferences Survey measures explain actual behavior Survey measures subject to response errors: Need to model noise Guidance for use of imputations in regressionsTRANSCRIPT
Risk Preferences in the PSID: Individual Imputations and Family Covariation
January 3, 2009AEA Annual Meeting
Session on “New Empirical Approaches to Decision Making Under Uncertainty”
Miles S. Kimball, University of Michigan, NBER
Claudia R. Sahm, Federal Reserve Board
Matthew D. Shapiro, University of Michigan, NBER
Overview: Risk Tolerance in the PSID
• Measure survey responses to a hypothetical gambles over lifetime income (Barsky, Kimball, Juster, and Shapiro QJE 1997)
• Use statistical model to impute individual risk tolerance (BKJS 1997, Kimball, Sahm, Shapiro JASA 2008)
• Examine covariation in risk preferences between family members
Lessons from Survey-Based Measurement of Preferences
• Survey measures explain actual behavior
• Survey measures subject to response errors: Need to model noise
• Guidance for use of imputations in regressions
Survey Question1996 PSID asks working family respondents:
Suppose you had a job that guaranteed you income for life equal to your current, total income. And that job was (your/your family's) only source of income.
Then you are given the opportunity to take a new, and equally good, job with a 50-50 chance that it will double your income and spending power. But there is a 50-50 chance that it will cut your income and spending power by a third.
Would you take the new job?
Follow-up questions with downside risks of 10, 20, 50, and 75 percent, assign to 1 of 6 response categories
1 30.9 2 18.2 3 15.6 4 15.0 5 13.7 6 6.6
5,466 PSID respondents
Response Category
Percent of Respondents
Distribution of Responses
• Modal response is to reject all risky jobs• Yet, substantial heterogeneity in sample• Similar to patterns in HRS
Increasing in risk
tolerance
Mapping to Preferences Parameters• Gamble response categories have a cardinal interpretation under expected utility theory and CRRA
For example, category 3:
• accept downside risk of 1/5:
Coefficient of relative risk tolerance θ 0.27
1/-1C U(C)where
)())5/11((5.0)2(5.01/-1
CUCCU
• similarly, reject downside risk of 1/3 θ 0.50
Statistical Model
itqit
itiit
eb
log
• Assume risk tolerance θ log-normally distributed:
• Gamble responses provide noisy signal of risk tolerance:
• Response category give bounds for ξ and estimate parameters with ordered probit
• Not identified with one PSID wave, use HRS panel to correct for survey response error
2log ~ ,i i xx N
with status quo bias b and transitory error 2,0~ eNe
Parameter estimates for PSID
Log of risk tolerance Mean -1.05
Standard deviation x 0.87
Status-quo bias b -0.21
Response error Standard deviation e 1.30
Imposed from HRS
1 -1.60 0.27 6.7 2 -1.18 0.40 4.2 3 -0.98 0.49 3.5 4 -0.77 0.60 2.8 5 -0.50 0.79 2.2 6 -0.08 1.22 1.4
Log Risk Tolerance
Risk Tolerance
Risk Aversion
Note: Imputations use MLE estimates from the PSID gambles that are adjusted for response error and status quo bias using estimates from the HRS.
Response Category
Individual Imputations
• MLE estimates and moment-generating function to impute preference parameters
Using Imputations as a Proxy
Advantages• Cardinal measure• Controls for response error• Controls attenuation bias in regression analysis
Using Imputations as a Proxy
Cautions• Imputations based on survey response alone
do not account for all heterogeneity in preferences
• In multivariate regressions, imputation error may be correlated with regressors
• KSS give procedures for handling covariates
20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 1 22.7 27.8 30.5 44.6 60.6 2 18.7 18.5 18.8 16.9 13.4 3 15.9 16.1 16.5 13.3 9.3 4 17.8 16.3 15.5 8.0 6.5 5 17.3 13.9 13.0 11.6 4.9 6 7.6 7.4 5.6 5.5 5.3Note: Unweighted tabulations of PSID gamble respondents.
Response Category
Percent by Age Group
Risk tolerance responses depend on age
PSID Intergenerational Application
Need to control for age in statistical model
Family Covariation• Use family members responses to explore source
of heterogeneity in preferences
• Compare responses from parents and adult children, siblings, (PSID), and spouses (HRS)
• Positive covariation within family as in other studies (Charles and Hurst JPE 2003 and Dohmen, Falk, Huffman, and Sunde WP 2008)
• Sets upper bound on the degree variation due to idiosyncratic (persistent) response errors
Statistical Model• For example, consider responses from father f and child c:
• Covariance driven by preferences not response error
),(~log 2 fffff N
),(~log 2 ccccc N
2Cov , (log , log )f c f c fcCov
• Separate estimation for father-child, mother-child, younger-older sibling, and husband-wife pairs
•Age effects controlled for by difference in means
Father Mother Child 1 Child 2Father 0.76 0.41 0.14 0.14
(0.07)Mother 0.32 0.76 0.23 0.23
(0.13) (0.07)Child 1 0.11 0.18 0.76 0.48
(0.13) (0.11) (0.03)Child 2 0.11 0.18 0.37 0.76
(0.13) (0.11) (0.06) (0.03)
Variance-Covariance \ Correlation
Covariation in Log Risk Tolerance
• Mother-child correlation twice as large as father-child
• Sibling correlation is considerably stronger than parent-child• Spouse correlation nearly as high as sibling correlation
• Imputations of preference parameters– Cardinal preference parameter– Adjustments for response error
• Substantial heterogeneity in PSID
• Age effects substantial
Conclusions: Imputations
• Substantial correlation among family members
• Correlation strongest between siblings
• Strong correlation substantial signal in survey
• Sources of correlation an open question
Conclusions: Family Correlation