We consider the exponential utility maximization problem under partial information. The underlying asset price process follows a continuous semimartingale and strategies have to be constructed when only part of the information in the market is available. We show that this problem is equivalent...

Conflicts of interest between insiders (e.g, controlling shareholders) and outsiders (e.g., minority shareholders) are central to the analysis of modern corporation. In an integrated continuous-time contingent claims framework with imperfect corporate governance, we examine a controlling...

This paper explores the hypothesis that gender wage differentials arise from the interaction between the intra-household allocation of labor and the contractual relation between firms and workers in the presence of private information on workers’ labor market attachment. In our model, if firms...

Richard Brealey presents a brief, nontechnical description of current research on investment management and its implications for the investment manager. He covers market efficiency, valuation, and modern portfolio theory in a book that The New York Times noted "rates high as reading for every...

These studies of the cost of capital will inspire and guide policy-makers who share the goal of making the allocation of capital in a market economy more efficient. Volume 1 presents pioneering studies of the cost of capital as a determinant of investment expenditures. The cost of capital...

Episodes of market crashes have fascinated economists for centuries. Although many academics, practitioners and policy makers have studied questions related to collapsing asset price bubbles, there is little consensus yet about their causes and effects. This review and essay evaluates some of...

This paper analyzes the sources of disparities in the relative wealth position of Mexican Americans. Results reveal that - unlike the racial wealth gap - Mexican Americans' wealth disadvantage is in large part not the result of differences in wealth distributions conditional on the underlying...

This paper derives optimal life cycle portfolio asset allocations as well as annuity purchases trajectories for a consumer who can select her hours of work and also her retirement age. Using a realistically-calibrated model with stochastic mortality and uncertain labor income, we extend the...

This paper shows that a decision maker using the CAPM for valuing firms and making decisions may contradict Modigliani and Miller’s Proposition I, if he adopts the widely-accepted disequilibrium NPV. As a consequence, CAPM-minded agents employing this NPV are open to arbitrage losses and miss...

This paper takes a closer look at the puzzle uncovered by Driesprong et al. (2008) and finds empirical support for the "oil effect" in equity returns. Using forty nine US industry-level returns series and changes in oil spot and future prices, we address whether industry-level returns are...