We develop a new class of utility functions, SAHARA utility, with the distinguishing feature that it allows absolute risk aversion to be non-monotone and implements the assumption that agents may become less risk-averse for very low values of wealth. The class contains the well-known exponential...

We develop a new class of utility functions, SAHARA utility, with the distinguishing feature that it allows absolute risk aversion to be non-monotone and implements the assumption that agents may become less risk-averse for very low values of wealth. The class contains the well-known exponential...

A pervasive feature in the finance industry is relative performance, which can include extrinsic (money), intrinsic (self-image), and reputational (status) motives. In this paper, we model a portfolio decision with two assets and investigate how reputational motives (i.e., the public...

In 1988 Dybvig introduced the payoff distribution pricing model (PDPM) as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Under this new paradigm agents preferences depend on the probability distribution of the payoff and for the same distribution agents prefer the payoff that requires...

We study continuous-time optimal consumption and investment with Epstein-Zin recursive preferences in incomplete markets. We develop a novel approach that rigorously constructs the solution of the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation by a fixed point argument and makes it possible to...

We consider a generalization of the recursive utility model by adding a new component that represents utility of investment gains and losses. We also study the utility process in this generalized model with constant elasticity of intertemporal substitution and relative risk aversion degree, and...

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 equilibrium prices in asset markets, as stated by Keynes (1930), "...will be fixed at the point at which the sales of the bears and the purchases of the bulls are balanced." We propose a descriptive theory of finance explicating Keynes' claim that the prices of assets today equilibrate the...