This paper argues that observations of non-stationary choice behavior need notnecessarily imply specific properties of the individual’s discount function. As weshow, the observed “anomalies” in intertemporal choice can alternatively be explained by an individual’s perception of the risk...

One of the most enduring questions in finance is the persistence of investment risk across time. Traditional finance lacks of recipes on how to approach and how to hedge non-diversifiable risks. Risks that can not be diversified at a given point in time can nevertheless be averaged over time...

This paper introduces state dependent utility into the standard Mehra and Prescott (1985) economy by allowing the representative agents coefficient of relative risk aversion to vary with the underlying economys growth rate. Existence of equilibrium is proved and its asymptotic properties...

Assuming investors are loss averse, repeated risky investments are less attractive inmyopic evaluation. A theoretical foundation for this effect is given by the behavioralconcept of myopic loss aversion (MLA). The consequences of MLA have been confirmedin several between-subject experimental...

Natural catastrophes attract regularly the attention of media and have become a source of public concern. From a financial viewpoint, natural catastrophes represent idiosyncratic risks,diversifiable at the world level. But for reasons analyzed in this pap er reinsurance markets are unable to...

We study properties of structured financial products optimizing a utility functional of a customer. The conventional method may have the disadvantage that the a priori restriction to a certain number of assets could make it impossible to find the optimal portfolio. So instead of optimizing the...

We conduct controlled experiments in order to analyze individual trading behavior. Our results suggest that investors measure their gains relative to their initial wealth, and that this reference point together with past stock price changes determine the portfolio choices. Subjects choose a...