Prospect Theory Goes to War: Loss-Aversion and the Duration of Military Combat

Bauer, Thomas und Rotte, Ralph (1997): Prospect Theory Goes to War: Loss-Aversion and the Duration of Military Combat. Sonderforschungsbereich 386, Discussion Paper 97

Abstract

This paper contributes to the empirical foundation of prospect theory in real-life international relations by testing two of its major implications in the field of military conflict. Using duration analysis for a data set of twentieth century battles, it is shown how the experience of losses contributes positively to the preparedness to continue fighting, up to a point where casualties clearly outweigh any direct utility drawn from ordinary expected-utility theory. Moreover, the empirical results also indicate that the relative position compared to the opponent's is clearly less important for the decision whether to stop a battle or not than the change of one's own position compared to the beginning of the fight.

• Dokumententyp: Paper
• Fakultät: Mathematik, Informatik und Statistik > Statistik > Sonderforschungsbereich 386 ; Sonderforschungsbereiche > Sonderforschungsbereich 386
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 510 Mathematik
• Sprache: Englisch