A deferred annuity typically includes an option-like right for thepolicyholder. At the end of the deferment period, he may either choose toreceive annuity payouts, calculated based on a mortality table agreed to atcontract inception, or receive the accumulated capital as a lump sum.Considering...

This paper argues that observations of non-stationary choice behavior need notnecessarily imply specific properties of the individual’s discount function. As weshow, the observed “anomalies” in intertemporal choice can alternatively be explained by an individual’s perception of the risk...

We prove that for any incomplete market and any concave utilityfunction the marginal propensities to consume and to save are alwayspositive. Furthermore, we introduce a class of incomplete markets thatincludes almost all well known examples of market incompleteness infinance and macroeconomics....

This paper finds out that the risk exposure of a trader subject to a VaR limit is always lower than that of an unconstrained trader and that the probability of extreme losses is also lower.

This paper contributes to the already vast literature on demography-induced internationalcapital flows by examining the role of labor market imperfections and institutions. We setup atwo-country overlapping generations model with search unemployment, which we calibrateon EU15 and US data. Labor...

This paper considers the statistical analysis of large panel data sets where even afterconditioning on common observed effects the cross section units might remain dependentlydistributed. This could arise when the cross section units are subject to unobserved commoneffects and/or if there are...

An analytical framework is developed to study the repercussions betweenendogenous capital- and labor-saving technical change and population aging.Following an intuition often attributed to Hicks (1932), I ask whether and howpopulation aging aects the relative scarcity of factors of production,...

We study the eect of a declining labor force on the incentives to engage in labor-savingtechnical change and ask how this eect is inuenced by institutional characteristics of the pensionscheme. When labor is scarcer it becomes more expensive and innovation investments that increaselabor...

The analysis in this paper focuses on the impact of health on the savings andconsumption decisions of the elderly. In principle, there are at least five alternativechannels through which health may affect consumption and savings. Ill health mayaffect both consumption capacities and needs while...

Microcredit is an innovative financial tool designed to reduce poverty and fix credit marketimperfections. We use experimental measures of time discounting and risk aversion forvillagers in south India to highlight behavioral features of microcredit. Conditional onborrowing from any source,...