Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
那有什么乐趣？论极限运动中的刺激与责任
Where’s the fun in that? On thrill and liability in extreme sports
摘要
Extreme sports like solo rock climbing and BASE jumping are experiencing a boom in popularity, yet we are only starting to understand why they attract people. Individuals’ decisions to engage in these risky activities has long posed a challenge for utility theory. Contrary to public perception, most adventure sport participants are not reckless or solely motivated by adrenaline rush. They are disciplined, investing years of intensive training to understand the environment in which they operate and to develop the skills necessary to master the risky challenges. In this paper we develop a theory that distinguishes between the endogenous risk inherent to the sport and determined by participants’ own choices, and exogenous or uncontrollable background risk. It is well documented that while inherent risk lures individuals to these extreme sports, participants fear uncontrollable dangers as much as anybody else. This allows us to decompose participants’ utility into the thrill component of the activity and other aspects of the sport such as exercise and time outdoors. The same framework delivers a value of statistical life (VSL) that is risk-type dependent. Because participants weigh safety against the activity’s inherent risk, VSL is identified by their marginal spending on self-protection rather than by the level of risk they accept, so their tolerance for controllable risk does not imply that they value life cheaply. With this decomposition at hand, we study the optimal allocation of risk between participants and providers of these sports. We show that the modern legal doctrine of assumption of risk, in which providers are liable for their own negligence, but not for accidents stemming from the inherent riskiness of the activity, is more efficient than alternative arrangements. We illustrate our results with a calibrated example.
中文摘要
极限运动，如单人攀岩和定点跳伞，正经历着人气的激增，而我们才刚刚开始理解它们为何吸引人们。个体决定参与这些高风险活动长期以来对效用理论构成了挑战。与公众认知相反，大多数冒险运动的参与者并非鲁莽行事，也不仅仅受肾上腺素激增的驱使。他们自律，投入多年密集训练，以理解他们所处的环境，并发展出掌握风险挑战所需的技能。在本文中，我们发展了一种理论，区分运动固有的、由参与者自身选择决定的内生风险，以及外生或不可控的背景风险。有充分文献表明，尽管固有风险吸引个体参与这些极限运动，但参与者对不可控危险的恐惧与其他人无异。这使我们能够将参与者的效用分解为活动的刺激成分以及运动的其他方面，如锻炼和户外时间。同一框架得出了依赖于风险类型的统计生命价值（VSL）。由于参与者在安全与活动的固有风险之间进行权衡，VSL由他们在自我保护上的边际支出而非他们接受的风险水平所识别，因此他们对可控风险的容忍并不意味着他们轻视生命。借助这一分解，我们研究了参与者与这些运动提供者之间风险的最优分配。我们表明，现代法律原则中的风险自担原则，即提供者对其自身过失负责，但不对源于活动固有风险的事故负责，比其他安排更有效率。我们用一个校准示例说明了我们的结果。