This paper analyzes strategic transfer pricing with risk and effort averse divisional managers. In contrast to earlier literature, we find that the existence of a standard agency problem allows transfer pricing to serve as a commitment device even if the transfer prices are not mutually...

This paper analyzes optimizing decisions of a monopolist under uncertainty. The aspiration model directly accounts for asymmetric risk preferences with respect to downside risk. The optimal output (price) of a risk-averse monopolist facing marginal cost uncertainty will not exceed that of his...

This paper analyzes optimizing decisions of a monopolist under uncertainty. The aspiration model directly accounts for asymmetric risk preferences with respect to downside risk. The optimal output (price) of a risk-averse monopolist facing marginal cost uncertainty will not exceed that of his...

In this paper we consider how the degree of risk aversion, and demand/cost uncertainty, influence competition on oligopolistic markets. Under demand uncertainty, the best response strategies (both quantities and prices) are decreasing in risk aversion, but for cost uncertainty, quantities are...

The term “equity premium puzzle” was coined in 1985 by economists Rajnish Mehra and Edward C. Prescott. The equity premium puzzle in considered one of the most significant questions in finance. A number of papers have explored the fundamental questions of why the premium exists and has not...

Real option valuation has traditionally been concerned with investment under project value uncertainty while assuming the agent has perfect confidence in a specific model. However, agents do not generally have perfect confidence in their model and this {\it ambiguity} affects their decisions....

We analyze how the presence of financial markets effects the optimal exercise of real options for a risk averse agent. In this process we examine the role of the minimal martingale measure and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Using value-matching and smooth-pasting conditions, we...

If agents in workhorse business cycle models with financial frictions are allowed to index contracts to observable aggregates, they share aggregate financial risk (almost) perfectly. Thus, the borrowing-constrained capital holders' wealth share does not collapse following adverse shocks and the...

We argue the earnings announcement premium is a measure of firm-specific uncertainty aversion. Our stylized model shows earnings announcements, as pure news events, are priced only if investors are uncertainty averse; further, the earnings announcement return is negatively correlated to future...

When is it appropriate to add a convex component such as stock options to an optimal, managerial compensation contract? We show that, contrary to what is said in the literature, it is not risk aversion but cautiousness, a downside risk aversion measure, which gives the answer. When stockholders...