Risk Pooling, Risk Preferences, and Social Networks

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2012
Volume: 4
Issue: 2
Pages: 134-67

Score contribution per author:

0.804 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Using data from an experiment conducted in 70 Colombian communities, we investigate who pools risk with whom when trust is crucial for enforcing risk pooling arrangements. We explore the roles played by risk attitudes and social networks. Both empirically and theoretically, we find that close friends and relatives group assortatively on risk attitudes and are more likely to join the same risk pooling group, while unfamiliar participants group less and rarely assort. These findings indicate that where there are advantages to grouping assortatively on risk attitudes those advantages may be inaccessible when trust is absent or low. (JEL C93, O12, O18, Z13)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejapp:v:4:y:2012:i:2:p:134-67
Journal Field
General
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-24