This paper examines a canonical stochastic overlapping generations model with dynamically complete markets. Belief differences lead agents to place bets against each other and so wealth shifts across agents and across generations. Such changes in the wealth distribution strongly affect prices of...

Incomplete markets in overlapping generations leave room for Pareto improvement. We analyze a model with two goods and idiosyncratic shocks. We compare market equilibrium with the constrained efficient equilibrium allocation and demonstrate that, when shocks are symmetric and do not affect all...

We propose an extension of the class of rational expectations bubbles (REBs) to the more general rational beliefs setting of Kurz (1994a,b). In a potentially non-stationary but stationarizable environment, it is possible to hold more than one (small-r) “rational” expectation. When rational...

This article investigates a two-period lived OLG model with financial intermediation as a vehicle to share risk. Risk-averse agents subject to idiosyncratic income shocks prefer financial intermediation that implements the efficient allocation to capital markets. It is shown that the resulting...

Financial intermediaries may increase economic efficiency through intertemporal risk smoothing. However without an adequate regulation, intermediation may fail to do this. This paper studies the effects of a production shock in a closed economy and compares abilities of market-based and...

To design an optimal education policy, it is essential to account for the fertility differential between the poor and the rich because it affects the human capital investment through the child quantity-quality tradeoff of children. We develop a dynamic general equilibrium in which parents choose...

This paper explores the interaction between retirement flexibility and portfolio choice in an overlapping-generations model of a closed economy. Retirement flexibility is often seen as a hedge against capital market risks which justifies more risky asset portfolios. We show, however, that this...