Exam 20: Uncertainty and Information

-Van, whose utility of wealth curve is shown in the above figure, owns a home that is valued at $100,000. There is a 10 percent chance that the house will be destroyed by hurricane. The value of insurance to Van is

Suppose Nara could invest her $1000 in a savings account or she could invest in the stock market. After one year, the savings account has a guaranteed 5 percent interest rate and the stock market has a 10 percent chance of tripling her money, and 90 percent chance of losing it all. To give Nara the maximum expected wealth, what should she do?

Adverse selection can occur when

-John's utility of wealth curve is shown in the above figure. He currently has total wealth of $20,000. If there is a 50 percent chance that his $10,000 car will be stolen, what is the value of insurance against the theft?

Moral hazard typically occurs because

-Andrew's utility of wealth schedule is given in the above table. Andrew is offered a job as a cook which pays $10,000. He is also offered a job as a server which will pay $5,000 if tips are poor and $15,000 if tips are good. There is a 50 percent chance that tips will be poor and a 50 percent chance that tips will be good. The expected income from the job as a cook is ________ and from the job as a server is ________.

-Ashton has the utility of wealth curve shown in the above figure. He owns a sports car worth $30,000, and that is his only wealth. Ashton is a careless driver and there is a 30 percent chance that he will have an accident within a year. If he does have an accident, his car is worthless. What is Ashton's expected wealth?

You took a job as a salesperson in an insurance company with the knowledge that you have 0.5 chance of making $2,000 a month or $3,000 a month. How much will you make each month?

Insurance works by

-James has a utility of wealth schedule in the above table. He is offered a job selling video games at Games Galore. James' compensation depends on how much he sells. In a poor sales period, a salesperson makes $100 per month. In a good sales period, a salesperson makes $600 per month. James is told by the manager that, in any given month, there is a 25 percent chance of a poor sales period and a 75 percent chance of a good sales period. Suppose that one of James' professors offers him the opportunity to be a research assistant for a fixed and guaranteed amount each month. What amount must James' professor pay in order to make James indifferent between being a research assistant and working at Games Galore?

Nicole is indifferent between option A, which gives her $20,000 for sure, and option B, which gives her $10,000 with probability 0.5 or $32,000 with probability 0.5. Nicole's cost of risk for option B is

For a risk-averse individual, as wealth increases, total utility

Pablo must choose among options A, B, and C. Option A gives him $10,000 for sure. Option B gives him $4,000 with probability 0.5 or $16,000 with probability 0.5. Option C gives him $8,000 with probability 0.5 or $12,000 with probability 0.5. If he receives diminishing marginal utility from wealth, Pablo will

Travel insurance (which pays a traveler if the traveler needs to cancel his or her trip) has a clause that states it will not pay if the trip is cancelled because of a pre-existing condition. If sick people are more likely to purchase travel insurance, this clause is meant to

Moral hazard results from ________ information and adverse selection results from ________ information.

Christy is a telemarketer. She estimates that this summer, she has a 0.2 probability of earning $10,000, a 0.5 probability of earning $5,000, and a 0.3 probability of earning only $1,000. What is Christy's expected income?

One way of reducing the moral hazard problem in the automobile insurance market is for drivers to

-James has a utility of wealth schedule in the above table. He is offered a job selling video games at Games Galore. James' compensation depends on how much he sells. In a poor sales period, a salesperson makes $100 per month. In a good sales period, a salesperson makes $600 per month. James is told by the manager that, in any given month, there is a 25 percent chance of a poor sales period and a 75 percent chance of a good sales period. What is James' expected utility from taking this job?

-Beachcomber Beatrice spent her entire wealth of $100,000 to build a beach house on the Gulf of Mexico. There is a 10 percent chance that the house will be totally destroyed by a hurricane. Beatrice's utility of wealth schedule is given in the table above. What is Beatrice's expected wealth?

Assuming that the marginal utility of wealth diminishes implies that