EOPP Happy Hour

Friday 21 January

This week, Francisco presents

“Get rich or die tryin’“: Are we addicted to risk?

“Get rich or die tryin’“ is the title of debut album of rapper 50 Cent and it seems to be the motto of more and more people. Using a revealed preference argument, this make us believe that a significant number of people have preferences where the only satisfactory outcome is the maximum.

And it may be that this kind of behavior/preference is not restricted to a few individuals. We can think that the society as a whole have the same kind of behavior in several different situations:

· We take high risks to find new energy sources (e.g., risky oil drills and nuclear plants);

· We create new financial instruments, sometimes without careful thinking;

· Firms use high-risky/predatory strategies in litigations;

· War.

Are we addicted to risk?

Based on:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528783/?tool=pubmed

http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk.html

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a713937548&fulltext=713240928

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin'_(album)