We explore the implications of alternative methods of discounting future pension outlays for the valuation of funded pension liabilities. Measured liabilities affect the asset-liability ratio of pension funds and, thereby, their policies. Our framework for analysis is an applied many-generation...

This paper explores the introduction of collective risk-sharing elements in defined contribution pension contracts. We consider status-contingent, age-contingent and asset contingent risk-sharing arrangements. All arrangements raise aggregate welfare, as measured by equivalent variations. While...

Though risk attitude is central to economics and finance, relatively little is known about how it is formed and how it changes over time. Based on US data from a dedicated psycho-social module on lifestyle of the 2010 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we provide new evidence on the correlation...

The paper presents a large scale overlapping generation model with heterogeneous agents, where the family is the decision unit. We calibrate the model for three European countries – France, Italy and Sweden – which show marked differences in the design of some public programs. We examine the...

Based on large-scale survey data from the 2006-2012 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) we show that individual portfolio decisions are influenced by a variety of traits and facets traditionally investigated in the field of personality psychology. Two personality traits that taken...

In this study we provide direct evidence on the relationship between social status and personality traits. Using survey data from the 2006-2012 waves of the HRS, we show that individuals' self-perceived social status is associated with all the “Big Five” personality traits, after controlling...

We develop a structural econometric model to elicit household-specific expectations about future financial asset returns and risk attitudes by using data on observed portfolio holdings and self-assessed willingness to bear financial risk. Our framework assumes that household portfolios are...

We develop a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations to show that Social Security may increase welfare in dynamically efficient economies where agents are affected by self-control problems a la Gul and Pesendorfer (2001, Econometrica 69, 1403). In calibrating the model to the US...

We use a panel dataset from the Dutch Household Survey, covering annually the period 1995-2012, to analyse whether individual financial risk taste changes over time with the background macroeconomic and financial conditions, as well as personal and subjective exposure to portfolio risk....

We use individual life-history data on twelve European countries to investigate the role of temptation in explaining the decision to become home-owners relatively late in life. The model we consider takes into account the standard motives for saving and investing in illiquid assets such as...