We consider the problem of the optimal use of a good whose consumption can produce damages in the future. Potential damages are proportional to the accumulated lifetimeconsumption of the good. Scientific progress is made over time that provides information on the distribution of the intensity of...

We examine in this paper the effect of an early resolution of uncertainty on savings. We show that this effect is in general ambiguous. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the utility function which guarantee that an early resolution of uncertainty reduces current savings for...

We examine an important class of decision problem under uncertainty that entails the standarrd portfolio problem and the demand for coinsurance. The agent faces a controllable risk -his demand for a risky asset for example- and a background risk. We determine how a change in the distribution in...

We consider a model in which the agent faces two independant risks of losswith different probabilities of occurence and (possibly) different levels of potential loss. We show that it is optimal to select a deductable for the low probability event that is not larger than the optimal deductable...

It is often suggested that the larger the size of risk, the larger our willingness to pay (WTP) for a given reduction of this risk. We show that this is not true in general in the expected utility model. We examine under which conditions the WTP for a marginal reduction in the size of risk is...

In this paper, we show how a differentiated tax treatment of corporate losses and corporate profits induces the firm to behave in a very specific risk-averse manner.

La litterature sur les decisions d'investissement en incertitude a largement souligne l'interet de reporter la mise en oeuvre des investissements les plus risques en attendant l'arrivee de nouvelles informations sur leurs rentabilites. Nous utilisons le modele standard de choix de portefeuille...

We consider an economy with a complete set of competitive markets for contingent claims. We examine how wealth inequality affects the equilibrium value of the equity premium and the risk-free rate. We forst show that welath inequality raises the equity premium if and only if the inverse of...

The hypothesis examined in this paper is that the greater the investor's flexibility, the easier it is for him to change his portfolio depending on his results, the more willing he will be to accept risks. When the investor has no control on the size of the risky investment, but can choose...