Dynamic Estimates Of The Arrow-Pratt Absolute And Relative Risk Aversion Coefficients

Abstract

We derive a closed-form expression capturing the degree of Relative Risk Aversion (RRA) of investors for non-"fair" lotteries. We argue that our formula is superior to earlier methods that have been proposed, as it is a function of only three variables. Namely, the Treasury yields, the returns and the market capitalization of a specific market index. Our formula, is tested on CAC 40, EURO, S&P 500 and STOXX 600, with respect to the market capitalization of each index, for different time periods. We deduce that the investors in these markets exhibit Decreasing Absolute Risk Aversion (DARA) through all the different time periods that we consider, while the degree of RRA has altered between being constant, decreasing or increasing. Furthermore, we propose a simple and intuitive way to measure the degree to which a wrong assumption with respect to the utility function of an investor will affect the structure of his portfolio. Our method is built on a two asset portfolio framework. Namely, a portfolio consisting of one risky and one risk-free asset. Applying our method, the empirical findings indicate that the weight invested in the risky asset varies substantially even among utility functions with similar characteristics.