The objective of this essay is to study to what extent parents divide their estates unequally between their children and the determinants of this decision. We use a new dataset based on the estate reports for almost 70,000 Swedish widows, widowers, divorcees and unmarried individuals who died...

This paper investigates the effect of adverse selection on the private annuity market in a model with two periods of retirement. In order to introduce the existence of limited-time pension insurance, we assume that for each period of retirement separate contracts can be purchased. Demand for the...

This paper investigates the effect of adverse selection and price competition on the private annuity market in a model with two retirement periods. In this framework annuity companies can offer contracts with different payoffs over the periods of retirement. Varying the time structure of the...

We develop a method that allows one to compute incomplete-market equilibria routinely forMarkovian equilibria (when they exist). The main difficulty to be overcome arises from the setof state variables. There are, of course, exogenous state variables driving the economy but, in anincomplete...

Carroll and Kimball (1996) prove that the consumption function is concave if infinitely-lived risk-averse households have a utility function which exhibits Hyperbolic Absolute Risk Aversion (HARA), face income uncertainty, and are prudent. However, the empirical evidence is inconclusive about...

Using a dynamic panel approach, we provide empirical evidence that negative health shocks reduce earnings. The effect is primarily driven by the participation margin and is concentrated in less educated individuals and those with poor health. We build a dynamic, general equilibrium, life cycle...

This article shows that, as long as agents are required to maintain positivewealth, the presence of portfolio constraints may give rise to asset pricingbubbles in equilibrium even if there are unconstrained agents in the economywho can benefit from the induced arbitrage opportunity. Furthermore,...

The purpose of this paper is to explain why some markets for financialproducts take off while others vanish as soon as they have emerged ...

This paper studies an application of a Darwinian theory of portfolioselection to stocks listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).We analyze numerically the long-run outcome of the competition offix-mix portfolio rules in a stock market with actual DJIA dividends.In the model seemingly...