Relative risk aversion coefficient ($\alpha (W)=-W{U}^{\prime \prime }(W)/U^{\prime }(W)$)

For positive wealth and increasing twice differentiable utility function, this dimensionless coefficient measures sensitivity to proportional wealth risk. If it is constant, integration gives $U^{\prime }(W)=c{W}^{-\alpha }$ with $c>0$, and hence $U(W)=c{W}^{1-\alpha }/(1-\alpha )+d$ for $\alpha \ne 1$ or $c\log W+d$ for $\alpha =1$. Positive, zero and negative coefficients correspond respectively to risk aversion, risk neutrality and risk seeking. The usual CRRA utility subclass takes $\alpha >0$.

Compare expected utility of $W(1+\varphi )$, where $\mathbb{E}\varphi =0$, with the certainty equivalent $W(1-\psi )$. A second-order Taylor expansion gives $U(W)+W^2{U}^{\prime \prime }(W)\mathbb{E}{\varphi }^2/2$ for the risky side and $U(W)-W{U}^{\prime }(W)\psi$ for the sure side. Equality gives the displayed proportional risk premium. This requires a genuinely small-shock family with controlled remainders; small variance alone does not control rare large wealth shocks.