TOMADA DE DECISÃO EM AMBIENTE DE RISCO: UMA AVALIAÇÃO SOB A ÓTICA COMPORTAMENTAL

Abstract

Behavioral Finance is a theoretical answer for the anomalies that have been consistently detected on empirical tests of the efficient markets hypothesis. The seminal article by Kahneman and Tversky (1979) brings the Prospect Theory approach, showing that the individual behavior towards risk doesn’t exactly corresponds to the expected theory axioms. From that point, several studies have been done, and its results pointed out that the decision making process on risk could be influenced by previous results and demographic variables. This paper focus on the influence of previous results and demographic variables (as age, sex, wealth and education level) in the decision making process under risk. In a 266 people sample, the results show that the behavioral finance theory explains just a part of the decision making process, but there appear several anomalies against the expected utility theory.