In: Economics
In the final round of a TV game show, contestants have a chance to increase their current winnings of $1 million to $2 million. If they are wrong, their prize is decreased to $500,000. A contestant thinks his guess will be right 50% of the time. Should he play? What is the lowest probability of a correct guess that would make playing profitable?
We need to calculate the expected value of the increase and decrease in the prize money:
So as the expected value is positive, the contestant should answer
To coalculate the minimum probablity to make playing profitable, we need to calculate the probability where Expected value = 0
So the minimum probability of success for accepting the project should be 0.33 or 33% as if it is lower, the expected value will be negative