This paper explores the interaction between retirement flexibility and portfolio choice in an overlapping-generations model. We analyse this interaction both in a partial-equilibrium and general-equilibrium setting. Retirement flexibility is often seen as a hedge against capital-market risks...

Theory predicts that under certain restrictions on preferences prudent consumers will allocate relatively more funds to riskless assets when there is uninsurable background risk. This paper analyzes empirically the relevance of precautionary motives for the structure of household wealth. To this...

Risk premia in the consumption capital asset pricing model depend on preferences and dividend. We develop a decomposition which allows a separate treatment of both components. We show that preferences alone determine the risk-return tradeoff measured by the Sharpe-ratio. In general, the...

This paper models the effect of a HIV/AIDS epidemic on saving behavior and studies the welfare effects of testing for HIV. The model specifies a utility function that includes both regular consumption, and medical expenditures. Medical expenditures generate more utility if individuals are HIV...

This paper studies the effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on saving behaviour. Two important characteristics of HIV result in opposing forces on savings: mortality increases, which reduces savings, and long-term illness risk increases, which enhances savings. We use a two period life-cycle model...

We conduct an experiment to study the prevalence of the higher order risk attitudes of prudence and temperance, in a large demographically representative sample, as well as in a sample of undergraduate students. Participants make pairwise choices between lotteries of the form proposed by...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between financial wealth, reservation wages and labour market transitions. According to the theory, higher levels of wealth will result in higher reservation wages and lower employment probabilities. We test for the validity of this assumption by...

This paper explores the optimal risk sharing arrangement between generations in an overlapping generations model with endogenous growth.We allow for nonseparable preferences, paying particular attention to the risk aversion of the old as well as overall "life-cycle" risk aversion.We provide a...

Among U.S. middle-class households, the marginal propensity to consume is either invariant to household wealth or a U-shaped function thereof. In contrast, precautionary savings models predict that wealth reduces the marginal propensity to consume. We bridge this gap between theory and data with...