Direct preferences for wealth, the risk premium puzzle, growth, and policy effectiveness

In this paper, we consider social status, the spirit of capitalism, fiscal policies, and asset pricing in a stochastic model of growth. With specific assumptions on the production technology, preferences, and stochastic shocks, we derive the explicit solutions to the growth rates of consumption and savings and equilibrium returns on all assets. We further demonstrate how fiscal policies, the spirit of capitalism, and stochastic shocks affect growth, asset pricing, and welfare.