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Attitudes toward Success and Failure

Larbi Alaoui & Antonio Penta

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics2026https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20240429article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Individuals often attach a special meaning to attaining a certain goal, and getting past a threshold marks the difference between success and failure. In this paper, we take a standard expected utility (EU) setting with an exogenous reference point that separates success from failure and define attitudes toward success and failure as features of preferences over lotteries. The distinctive feature of our definitions is that they concern a local reversal of the decision-maker’s risk attitude across the reference point. Our findings provide a unified view of several well-known models of reference-dependent preferences and suggest new forms of comparative statics exercises. (JEL D11, D44, D81, D91)

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20240429

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@article{larbi2026,
  title        = {{Attitudes toward Success and Failure}},
  author       = {Larbi Alaoui & Antonio Penta},
  journal      = {American Economic Journal: Microeconomics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.20240429},
}

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Attitudes toward Success and Failure

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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