Comment on 'Risk Preferences Are Not Time Preferences': Balancing on a Budget Line^†.

In a recent experimental study of intertemporal risky decision making, Andreoni and Sprenger (2012) find that subjects exhibit a preference for intertemporal diversification, which is inconsistent with discounted expected utility theory. It was claimed that their results are also at odds with models involving probability weighting, such as rank-dependent utility and cumulative prospect theory. Here we demonstrate, however, that rank-dependent probability weighting explains intertemporal diversification if decision makers care about portfolio risk. Moreover, we provide a unified account of all of Andreoni and Sprenger's key findings. (JEL C91, D81, D91) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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