In a continuous time life cycle model of consumption with uncertain lifetime and no ''pure time preference", we use a non-parametric specification of rank dependent utility theory to characterize the preferences of the agents. From normative point of view, the paper discusses the implication of...

A well-known common agreement in decision theory is that only exponential decision makers are time consistent i.e. with the mere passage of time, future choices must not contradict the initial choice. Building on this result, a large range of works has studied time inconsistency as a direct...

The aim of this paper is to assess the relevance of methodological transfers from behavioral ecology to experimental economics with respect to the elicitation of intertemporal preferences. More precisely our discussion will stem from the analysis of Stephens and Anderson's (2001) seminal...

Drawing on passages in Book II of the Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), in the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), in the Dissertation on the Passions (1757), and in some of the Essays (1777), this paper is built upon Hume's distinction between three alternative valuations of...

We propose a method for estimating hurdle rates for firms' investments in pollution abatement technology, using ex post data. The method is based on a structural option value model where the future price of polluting fuel is the major source of uncertainty facing the firm. The econometric...

Since the energy markets liberalisation at the beginning of the 1990s in Europe, electricity monopolies have gone through a profound evolution process. From an industrial organisation point of view, they lost their monopoly on their historical business, but gained the capacity to develop in any...

This paper applies to adverse selection theory the advances made in the field of ambiguity theory. It shows that i) a relevant second-best contract induces no production distortion considering the efficient agent as in the standard case. But the principal has to pay a higher information rent...

This paper investigates the impact of family control on French acquirers' performance.We consider a sample of 239 acquisitions undertaken by French listed companies between January 1997 and December 2006. Comparing both, short-termand long-termperformance,we find that family-controlled firms...

The purpose of this study is to introduce the board of directors as a signal of firm quality to abate information asymmetry. This study is based on agency theory and signaling theory to suggest that the existence of properly structured board at the time of the IPO may signal high firm quality to...

This paper deals with contractual design and vertical relationships within a franchise chain, in the field of the literature on share contracts. Within a double-sided moral hazard, the contract sharing the profit generated by the vertical decentralized structure results from the necessity to...