The logical status of risk – to burnish or to dull

Presented here is an elaboration of the fundamental features of the meaning of risk. It distinguishes between analytic approaches grounded in realism and postmodern (including constructionist) epistemologies and the presuppositions of each. It argues that attempts to fuse the ontology of risk with epistemological considerations into a common definition is both internally contradictory and a weak foundation for a theoretically justified definition of risk. In place of a fused definition of risk, it re‐affirms a definition risk as a state of the world, independent of percipient actors.     

小概率高损失事件的忽略——对中国发展巨灾保险的意义

地震、洪水和台风等都属于小概率高损失的巨灾风险,一旦发生将给社会和人们的生活带来破坏性的后果。研究表明,巨灾事件的发生会极大地改变公众对风险或损失的预期和感知。在巨灾事件发生时以及一段时间内,由于风险信息的显著性和可获得性,公众会产生暂时的紧张和恐惧心理,随着时间的流逝,人们会慢慢从非理性中冷静下来,意识到巨灾风险发生的概率是如此之小,过度的担心是没有必要的。这对于巨灾风险制度的发展产生了重要的影响,因此,分析和研究公众对巨灾风险的感知、提出相应的巨灾保险发展的对策建议具有重要的理论和实践意义。     

The gambler’s fallacy fallacy (fallacy)

The gambler’s fallacy is the irrational belief that prior outcomes in a series of events affect the probability of a future outcome, even though the events in question are independent and identically distributed. In this paper, we argue that in the standard account of the gambler’s fallacy, the gambler’s fallacy fallacy can arise: the irrational belief that all beliefs pertaining to the probabilities of sequences of outcomes constitute the gambler’s fallacy, when, in fact, they do not. Specifically, the odds of the probabilities of some sequences of outcomes can be epistemically rational in a given decision-making situation. Not only are such odds of probabilities of sequences of outcomes not the gambler’s fallacy, but they can be implemented as a simple heuristic for avoiding the gambler’s fallacy in risk-related decision-making. However, we have to be careful not to fall prey to a variant of the gambler’s fallacy, the gambler’s fallacy fallacy (fallacy), in which we do not calculate odds for the probabilities of sequences that matter, but rather simply believe that the raw probability for the occurrence of a sequence of outcomes is the probability for the last outcome in that sequence.     

General and specific cancer risk perceptions: how are they related?

Understanding how people construe and act upon cancer risk is important for efforts to target risk-increasing health behaviors. Importantly, research participants are often asked to estimate their risk for cancer (in general), which could mask the fact that cancer represents a range of diseases, and that different cancer types can have distinct risk factors. It is unclear whether individuals perceive general cancer risk as being comprised of an aggregation of risk for specific cancer sites, or whether general cancer risk perceptions reflect the specific type of cancer most salient to them. In this study, general cancer risk perceptions were regressed on specific risk perceptions for colon, lung, prostate (men only), and breast (women only), using data from a nationally representative sample. We found that among men and women, all forms of cancer predicted independent variance in estimates of general cancer risk. There were also stronger relationships between general risk perceptions and each specific risk perception than between any two specific risk perceptions, suggesting that individuals differentiate between specific cancers and general cancer risk. These findings offer some confidence that people’s estimates of general cancer risk take multiple cancer types into account.     

The Valuation of Insurance under Uncertainty: Does Information about Probability Matter?

In a laboratory experiment we test the hypothesis that consumers' valuation of insurance is sensitive to the amount of information available on the probability of a potential loss. In order to test this hypothesis we simulate a market in which we elicit individuals' willingness to pay to insure against a loss characterised either by known or else vague probabilities. We use two distinct treatments by providing subjects with different information over the vague probabilities of loss. In general we find that uncertainty about probabilities has a weak impact on consumers' valuation of insurance. However, additional information about probabilities tends to marginally increase the price individuals are willing to pay to insure themselves. Implications for the insurance market are derived.     

商业银行操作风险管理研究述评

操作风险管理是银行风险管理一个新的研究领域,近年来出现了一些有意义的研究成果。现有研究成果大体可分为操作风险定义、管理和计量等几个方面。在定义方面,已有不少的探讨,但目前尚没有形成统一的操作风险定义;在管理方面,公司治理、内部控制和风险管理理论分别从不同的角度为操作风险管理提供了支持,但总的来说,还没有形成系统的理论和技术;在计量方面,出现了一些有一定影响的操作风险度量模型,但还远没有达到令人满意的程度。本文对现有主要研究成果进行了总结归纳;同时,针对现有研究存在的不足,提出了今后操作风险管理研究需要注意的问题。     

商业银行操作风险管理研究述评

操作风险管理是银行风险管理一个新的研究领域，近年来出现了一些有意义的研究成果。现有研究成果大体可分为操作风险定义、管理和计量等几个方面。在定义方面，已有不少的探讨，但目前尚没有形成统一的操作风险定义；在管理方面，公司治理、内部控制和风险管理理论分别从不同的角度为操作风险管理提供了支持，但总的来说，还没有形成系统的理论和技术；在计量方面，出现了一些有一定影响的操作风险度量模型，但还远没有达到令人满意的程度。本文对现有主要研究成果进行了总结归纳；同时。针对现有研究存在的不足，提出了今后操作风险管理研究需要注意的问题。