St. Petersburg paradox

E593494

The St. Petersburg paradox is a famous problem in probability theory and economics that highlights how a lottery with an infinite expected payoff can still attract only a finite price from rational gamblers, challenging traditional notions of expected value and decision-making under risk.

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St. Petersburg paradox canonical 1

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Predicate Object
instanceOf paradox in decision theory
paradox in economics
paradox in probability theory
analyzedBy Daniel Bernoulli NERFINISHED
challenges classical expected value theory
use of expected monetary value as sole decision criterion
describes lottery game with potentially infinite payoff
earlierVersionProposedBy Nicolas Bernoulli NERFINISHED
field decision theory
economics
game theory
probability theory
utility theory
firstPublicationYear 1738
firstPublishedIn Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae NERFINISHED
formalizedBy Daniel Bernoulli NERFINISHED
hasCoreConcept decision-making under risk
diminishing marginal utility of wealth
expected utility
infinite expected value
lottery with infinite expectation
risk aversion
unbounded utility function
hasInfluenced modern theories of risk and utility
hasSolutionApproach bounded utility hypothesis
expected utility with concave utility function
finite wealth constraints
probability weighting and behavioral models
hasVariant finite-horizon St. Petersburg game NERFINISHED
modified St. Petersburg game with capped payoffs
illustrates difference between expected value and willingness to pay
importance of utility curvature
limitations of linear utility in modeling choices
involves coin-toss game
geometrically increasing payoffs
infinite series of expected payoffs
motivated concept of risk aversion in economics
development of expected utility theory
introduction of utility functions for wealth
namedAfter Saint Petersburg NERFINISHED
relatedConcept expected utility hypothesis
expected value
lottery (probability theory)
paradoxes of rational choice
risk premium
utility of wealth
usedIn teaching of decision theory
teaching of microeconomics
teaching of probability theory

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Nicolaus Bernoulli notableWork St. Petersburg paradox