Consider a choice between two random variables, for which only means and variances are known. Is it possible to rank them by putting some constraints on risk preferences? We provide such a ranking by bounding how much marginal utility can change. Such bounds enable us to rank all distributions with given means and variances by first-order almost-stochastic dominance. We show how our results can be used to compare a risky project and a sure payoff and also provide a new connection between the Sharpe and Omega ratios from finance.

Tehnical Note - Ranking Distributions When Only Means and Variances Are Known / Müller, Alfred; Scarsini, Marco; Tsetlin, Ilia; Winkler, Robert L.. - In: OPERATIONS RESEARCH. - ISSN 0030-364X. - 70:5(2022), pp. 2851-2859. [10.1287/opre.2020.2072]

Tehnical Note - Ranking Distributions When Only Means and Variances Are Known

Marco Scarsini;
2022

Abstract

Consider a choice between two random variables, for which only means and variances are known. Is it possible to rank them by putting some constraints on risk preferences? We provide such a ranking by bounding how much marginal utility can change. Such bounds enable us to rank all distributions with given means and variances by first-order almost-stochastic dominance. We show how our results can be used to compare a risky project and a sure payoff and also provide a new connection between the Sharpe and Omega ratios from finance.
2022
choice between lotteries, mean and variance, first-order almost-stochastic dominance, marginal utility, Sharpe ratio, Omega ratio
Tehnical Note - Ranking Distributions When Only Means and Variances Are Known / Müller, Alfred; Scarsini, Marco; Tsetlin, Ilia; Winkler, Robert L.. - In: OPERATIONS RESEARCH. - ISSN 0030-364X. - 70:5(2022), pp. 2851-2859. [10.1287/opre.2020.2072]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11385/204335
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