In this paper, we investigate how investors who face both equity risk and credit risk would optimally allocate their financial wealth in a dynamic continuous-time setup. We model credit risk through the defaultable zero-coupon bond and solve the dynamics of its price after pricing it. Using...

This paper investigates how investors who face both market risk (interest rate risk) and credit risk in addition to equity risk would optimally allocate their financial wealth in a dynamic, no arbitrage, continuous-time setup. I model credit risk through a defaultable zero-coupon bond and solve...

The U.S. Bankruptcy code changed dramatically with the passage of The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act Of 2005. This act increased the costs and decreased the benefits of bankruptcy to consumers. Supporters of the law claimed that it would benefit consumers as well as...

The OLG model of Allais and Samuelson retains the methodological assumptions of agent optimization and market clearing from the Arrow-Debreu model, yet its equilibrium set has different properties: Pareto inefficiency, indeterminacy, positive valuation of money, and a golden rule equilibrium in...

We study the differences between public production and public finance of public goods in a dynamic general equilibrium model. Under public production, public goods are produced by the government. Under public finance, the same amount of public goods is produced by cost-minimizing private...

This paper provides a non-technical overview of the economic arguments related to the desirability of transfer taxation and a summary of empirical evidence surrounding these issues. Understanding optimal transfer taxation throughout the distribution requires understanding the nature of a bequest...

This paper has two goals. First, we discuss several emerging approaches to applied welfare analysis under non-standard ("behavioral") assumptions concerning consumer choice. This provides a foundation for Behavioral Public Economics. Second, we illustrate applications of these approaches by...

This paper addresses the issue of optimal population with two concerns: avoiding both the absolute repugnant solution that amounts to giving to an infinite number an infinitesimal amount and the marginal repugnant solution in which equilibrium consumption decreases with income. To avoid these...

The literature on public sector discounting has brought important insights, but there remain wide differences on some fundamental issues. This paper reviews the main conflicts and the reasons underlying them. It suggests practical procedures for discounting in government which are consistent...

A resolution is offered to Koopmans’ (1965, 1967a) "paradox of the indefinitely postponed splurge"-i.e. the incompatibility of undiscounted utilitarianism and population weighting in the context of the infinite-horizon neoclassical growth model with exponential population growth. The...