Purpose – The paper aims to examine the practical importance of the finding of Mayers and Smith, that underinvestment is a problem when debt exposed to bankruptcy is part of the financial structure. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines critically the assumptions underlying the...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of the equilibrium between demand and supply for a reciprocal insurance firm. Design/methodology/approach – The model developed assumes a fixed number of individuals with identical characteristics and of constant...

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the practical importance of the finding of Mayers and Smith, that underinvestment is a problem when debt exposed to bankruptcy is part of the financial structure. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines critically the assumptions underlying the...

This article models consumption and insurance decisions in a continuous-time, finite-horizon setting. We allow the consumer to acquire a "taste for the good life" by making current preferences for consumption dependent upon the individual's past consumption. The optimal consumption path is...

This article studies insurance demand in a two-period framework in which an individual faces risks in both current and future periods. Models for insurance with and without the presence of endogenous saving are both discussed. In contrast to what most literature suggests, when decisions on...