We study a class of optimization problems involving linked recursive preferences in a continuous-time Brownian setting. Such links can arise when preferences depend directly on the level or volatility of wealth, in principal-agent (optimal compensation) problems with moral hazard, and when the...

We show an isomorphism between optimal portfolio selection or competitive equilibrium models with utilities incorporating linear habit formation, and corresponding models without habit formation. The isomorphism is expressed through an explicit transformation of consumption plans, utilities,...

This paper develops the utility gradient (or martingale) approach for computing portfolio and consumption plans that maximize stochastic differential utility (SDU), a continuous-time version of recursive utility due to Duffie and Epstein (1992a). The setting is that of a general stochastic...

Empirical evidence shows that the pricing kernel, or stochastic discount factor (SDF), is not always downward sloping when estimated using Samp;P 500 data. On the other hand, we show that individual stock SDFs are in general downward sloping. We show that a simple jump diffusion returns model...

We show that optimal debt contracts in the presence of product market competition are typically different from standard debt contracts. We consider a market with two incumbents, one levered (target) and one with deep pockets (competitor). Renewal of target's debt depends on its profits, which...

We examine a dynamic model of R&D investment by competing firms with an uncertain payout and uncertain time to development success. The effect of competition on R&D investment depends critically on whether firms are able to monitor, and react to, each other's actions. In the absence of...

The Itô formula was extended recently by Dupire (2009) to functionals of paths of continuous semimartingales, and by Cont and Fournié (2010) to functionals of paths of RCLL semimartingales. In contrast to the traditional formula that applies to functions of the current value of a process,...

In the standard perfectly competitive model of costly information acquisition, private information always has a strictly positive value as long as prices are not perfectly revealing. We show that with imperfect competition, characterized by a finite number of traders, the value of private...

In 1991, at the behest of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) then Secretary Jack Kemp, the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing delivered a report on how land-use restrictions have worsened housing affordability. Secretary Kemp charged the...

We study the role of private information in the equity-lending market in a rational expectations model with endogenous loan fees. When all investors are privately informed, an increase in information precision reduces the fee by increasing trading aggressiveness and decreasing demand dispersion....