Suppose your utility function for money is a square-root function of its value in US dollars. So, for instance, $400 is worth 20 utils for you, $961 is worth 31 utils for you, and $62.5K is worth 250 utils for you. Now, let’s say your annual salary is $90K, although there is a small risk (p = 0.05) that something catastrophic will happen and reduce your income for the year to $14.4K. An insurance company comes along and offers to insure you against the loss of your salary. The cost of the insurance is $4,736. If you buy the policy and catastrophe strikes, the insurance company will pay out the $75,600 that you would otherwise have lost. From the standpoint of maximizing expected utility, would buying this insurance be a good deal for you? What would be the insurance company’s expected monetary value of selling you the policy?
Suppose your utility function for money is a square-root function of its value in US dollars. So, for instance, $400 is worth 20 utils for you, $961 is worth 31 utils for you, and $62.5K is worth 250 utils for you. Now, let’s say your annual salary is $90K, although there is a small risk (p = 0.05) that something catastrophic will happen and reduce your income for the year to $14.4K. An insurance company comes along and offers to insure you against the loss of your salary. The cost of the insurance is $4,736. If you buy the policy and catastrophe strikes, the insurance company will pay out the $75,600 that you would otherwise have lost. From the standpoint of maximizing expected utility, would buying this insurance be a good deal for you? What would be the insurance company’s expected monetary value of selling you the policy?
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