An experimental analysis of risk-shifting behavior

We study risk-shifting behavior in a laboratory experiment, a setup that overcomes methodological hurdles faced by empiricists in the past. The participants are high-level managers. We observe risk shifting in a simple setup, but less so in a setup with a continuation value. Reputation effects also...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Review of Corporate Finance Studies 2017-03, Vol.6 (1), p.68-101
Main Authors: Hernandez, Pablo, Povel, Paul, Sertsios, Giorgo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chile
Experiment
Führungskraft
Risikobereitschaft
Risikomanagement
Student
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We study risk-shifting behavior in a laboratory experiment, a setup that overcomes methodological hurdles faced by empiricists in the past. The participants are high-level managers. We observe risk shifting in a simple setup, but less so in a setup with a continuation value. Reputation effects also reduce risk shifting. When combined, a continuation value and reputation effects eliminate risk shifting. Our findings shed light on environments in which risk shifting is unlikely to happen, and why earlier studies produced conflicting results. In particular, our findings show that managers’ concerns with their own reputations are an important factor that mitigates risk shifting. Received February 24, 2016; editorial decision July 28, 2016 by Editor Paolo Fulghieri.
ISSN:2046-9136
2046-9128
2046-9136
DOI:10.1093/rcfs/cfw006