The effect of health on the marginal utility of consumption expenditures and on attitudes towards risk

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the effect of health on the risk attitudes and on the marginal utility of consumption. In the first chapter we explore the effect of health deterioration on the risk tolerance as people get older. In the second chapter we assess how health decline impact on the marginal utility of consumption when agents are hit by a shock. Finally, in the third chapter we exploit innovative elicited risk attitude measures in different domains and their behavioural validity in predicting risky behaviours.