Risk, insurance and option luck

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter examines risk, insurance, and option luck in relation to responsibility and equal opportunities. It considers the principle that individuals should never be held responsible for being lucky or unlucky, and as such the notion of option luck is prima facie unacceptable. It applies the Conditional Equality and Egalitarian-Equivalence criteria to problems of allocation under risk to justify policies that are sometimes similar to policies based on the notion of option luck. It also shows how the intuition underlying the notion of option luck can be reinterpreted in terms of the liberal reward principle. Finally, it discusses Ronald Dworkin's concept of option luck and his idea of a hypothetical insurance market.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationFairness, Responsibility, and Welfare
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780191808579
ISBN (Print)9780199215911
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 30 2015
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Keywords

  • Conditional equality
  • Egalitarian-equivalence
  • Equal opportunities
  • Insurance
  • Liberal reward principle
  • Option luck
  • Responsibility
  • Risk
  • Ronald dworkin

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