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Risk-averse
An individual is risk-averse if they prefer a certain pay-off of M to a risky prospect with an expected pay-off of M. This will be true whenever the marginal utility of wealth is decreasing, so the utility function is strictly concave. A risk-averse individual will not accept an actuarially fair gamble, and will pay a risk premium to avoid randomness of pay-offs.
Reference: Oxford Press Dictonary of Economics, 5th edt.
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