This paper shows that the value function describing efficient risk sharing with limited commitment is not necessarily differentiable everywhere. We link differentiability of the value function to history dependence of efficient allocations and provide sufficient conditions for both properties.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, there is increased concern about the potentially catastrophic pension default risk, which results in significant decreases in pension benefits. In order to address the challenge of annuity income uncertainty, I propose a dynamic annuitization...

We develop a retirement model with long-run income risk in which the wealth threshold for retirement is shown to be a function of the extent of the long-run income risk. By devising a new numerical algorithm, we solve the two-dimensional retirement problem. The two-dimensional retirement...

In this paper, we develop a new dynamic programming approach for solving an optimal retirement model in a two-dimensional incomplete market, which is induced by forced unemployment risk and borrowing constraints. We show that the two dimensions jointly affect an individual's optimal consumption,...

We develop an analytically tractable model of optimal financing policies for a risk averse decision maker who is exposed to climate risk causing a significant disruption to capital stock accumulation. We quantitatively identify certain thresholds of cash-capital ratio explicitly characterizing...

We explore how members of a collective pension scheme can share inflation risks in the absence of suitable financial market instruments. Using intergenerational risk sharing arrangements, risks can be allocated better across the various participants of a collective pension scheme than would be...

We use a life cycle model of consumption and portfolio choice to study the effects of social security on the investment decisions of households for the European case. Our model is mainly based on the one developed by Cocco, Gomes, and Maenhout (2005). We extend it by unemployment risk using...

The saving ratio of households in Germany has increased in the past few years when the income trend was weak. This could be due to precautionary saving. In this paper, the importance of precautionary saving against income uncertainty is analyzed empirically using micro data from the German...

We provide a model with endogenous portfolios of secured and unsecured household debt. Secured debt is collateralized by owner-occupied housing whereas unsecured debt can be discharged according to bankruptcy regulations. We show that the calibrated model matches important quantitative...