This paper studies the life cycle consumption-investment-insurance problem of a family. The wage earner faces the risk of a health shock that significantly increases his probability of dying. The family can buy term life insurance with realistic features. In particular, the available contracts...

This paper compares two classes of models that allow for additional channels of correlation between asset returns: regime switching models with jumps and models with contagious jumps. Both classes of models involve a hidden Markov chain that captures good and bad economic states. The distinctive...

We study consumption-portfolio and asset pricing frameworks with recursive preferences and unspanned risk. We show that in both cases, portfolio choice and asset pricing, the value function of the investor/representative agent can be characterized by a specific semilinear partial differential...

This paper studies constrained portfolio problems that may involve constraints on the probability or the expected size of a shortfall of wealth or consumption. Our first contribution is that we solve the problems by dynamic programming, which is in contrast to the existing literature that...

This paper studies consumption-portfolio decisions with recursive utility on a finite time horizon. We postulate essential properties that a bequest motive must satisfy. We show that the parameter which serves as weight of bequest in setups with time-additive utility is both quantitatively and...

Decision problems about consumption and insurance are modelled in a continuous time multistate Markovian framework. The optimal solution is derived and studied. The model, the problem, and its solution are exemplified by two special cases: In one model the individual takes optimal positions...

In this paper we present some counter-examples to show that an uncritical application of the usual methods of continuous-time portfolio optimization can be misleading in the case of a stochastic opportunity set. Cases covered are problems with stochastic interest rates, stochastic volatility,...

We study the welfare effect of tax-optimizing portfolio decisions in a life cycle model with unspanned labor income and realization-based capital gain taxation. For realistic parameterizations of our model, certainty equivalent welfare gains from fully tax-optimized portfolio decisions are less...

In this paper, we analyze the impact of default risk on the portfolio decision of an investor wishing to invest in corporate bonds. Default risk is modeled via a reduced form approach and we allow for random recovery as well as joint default events. Depending on the structure of the model, we...

This paper compares two classes of models that allow for additional channels of correlation between asset returns: regime switching models with jumps and models with contagious jumps. Both classes of models involve a hidden Markov chain that captures good and bad economic states. The distinctive...