Loss aversion and the welfare ranking of policy interventions
File(s)RosaDiasJoE.pdf (6.23 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Rosa Dias, Joao Pedro
Firpo, Sérgio
Martyna, Kobus
Galvão, António
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper develops theoretical criteria and econometric methods to rank policy interventions in terms of welfare when individuals are loss-averse. Our new criterion for “loss aversion-sensitive dominance” defines a weak partial ordering of the distributions of policy-induced gains and losses. It applies to the class of welfare functions which model individual preferences with non-decreasing and loss-averse attitudes towards changes in outcomes. We also develop new semiparametric statistical methods to test loss aversion-sensitive dominance in practice, using nonparametric plug-in estimates; these allow inference to be conducted through a special resampling procedure. Since point-identification of the distribution of policy-induced gains and losses may require strong assumptions, we extend our comparison criteria, test statistics, and resampling procedures to the partially-identified case. We illustrate our methods with a simple empirical application to the welfare comparison of alternative income support programs in the US.
Date Acceptance
2023-10-03
Citation
Journal of Econometrics
ISSN
0304-4076
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Econometrics
Copyright Statement
Copyright © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304407623003597
Publication Status
Published online
Rights Embargo Date
2025-12-20
Article Number
105643
Date Publish Online
2023-12-21