This paper analyzes dynamic equilibrium risk sharing contracts between profit-maximizing intermediaries and a large pool of ex-ante identical agents that face idiosyncratic income uncertainty that makes them heterogeneous ex-post. In any given period, after having observed her income, the agent...

As of 2005, individuals had an estimated $7.4 trillion invested in IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Given these investments, many retirees will face the difficult problem of turning a pool of assets into a stream of retirement income. Purchasing an immediate annuity is a common...

We analyze an equilibrium model in which agents exposed to idiosyncratic risk can purchase insurance policies in addition to financial assets. The price of an insurance contract depends nonlinearly on the claims and explicitly contains safety loadings, proportional to variance. We consider...

This paper investigates asset pricing in a three-period overlapping generations (OLG) model economy where each generation lives as young, middle-aged and old. There is one perishable consumption good in the economy and two types of traded securities in the capital market: a bond and a share of...

Monetary gifts in the form of a gift card can lead one to spend and conceive of these funds differently than if the gift is given as cash. Across four experiments, the presentation of a gift card rather than cash led to both intended and actual spending beyond the amount of the original gift,...

The problem of optimal consumption and investment is concerned with the decisions of a single agent endowed with some initial wealth who seeks to maximize total expected discounted utility of consumption. The decisions are the rate of consumption and the allocation of their wealth directed to...

This paper reviews the impact of aging on private pensions, in particular on the payout phase, assesses the part that annuities can play in financing retirement, and examines the role of financial markets in facilitating the allocation on assets accumulated in defined contribution pension plans....