Individual Differences in Loss Aversion and Effects on Well-Being

One of the most robust and replicated findings in the behavioural economics and decision making literature is that people are averse to losses.

In particular, a large body of research suggests that the negative effects of experiencing a loss are about twice as bad as the benefit derived from experiencing an equivalent gain. Recent research has hinted that not all individuals experience loss in the same way, and that there may be individual differences in loss aversion, determined, for example, by someone’s personality, age or gender.

This project has been designed to develop a fuller understanding of individual differences in loss aversion and subsequent impact on individual well-being, using an innovative mixed-methods approach.

Questions that the project might address include:
• What individual characteristics predict differences in loss aversion?
• How do people respond to different types of economic losses that have a qualitatively different meaning but are equivalent
in value?
• How do individual differences in loss aversion differ across the life course?
• What are the causal mechanisms driving individual differences in loss aversion?

These questions will be addressed using an innovative combination of robust secondary data analysis and ‘gold-standard’ causal experimental approaches, maximising the benefits of each, and providing a unique methodological, as well as knowledge, contribution to the Department of Economics.

The Department of Economics

The Department of Economics at the University of Sheffield has an international reputation for practical and real world economics. We are a leading research University and economics department and our academic staff are among the top economic experts in their field.

Students that study a PhD with us receive first class academic support, in a friendly, vibrant research environment with excellent facilities. All PhD students are given a desk and a computer in the department and offered opportunities for further training.

How to apply

Visit the Department of Economics webpage for details.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/phd/scholarships

Deadline for scholarship applications: Tuesday 3rd January 2017 at 23:59.

Online interviews are likely to take place on Tuesday 17th January 2017

The successful applicant will have their full PhD fees paid at the appropriate rate for 3 years.

They will also receive an annual tax-free maintenance stipend at the standard UK Research Council rate (£14,296 in 2017/18) over this period.