We propose an optimization criterion that yields extraordinary consumption smoothing compared to the well known results of the life-cycle model. Under this criterion we solve the related consumption and investment optimization problem faced by individuals with preferences for intertemporal...

In addition to premiums, investment income is one of the two main sources of capital for property-casualty (P/C) insurance companies. This study investigates short-term equity trading behavior of P/C insurers in the United States in 2007 and 2008, and finds that over 27 percent of non-group...

The financial and the insurance markets are increasingly penetrating each other, accounting for the fact that insurers are more and more often seen as major institutional investors of capital markets. The capital market offers a range of new opportunities, although it is not devoid of faults,...

The goal of this paper is to provide a critical overview of Moroccan insurance/pension fund investments in alternative assets through data analysis techniques. The results show that the risk of reserve depletion and the investment restrictions imposed by the regulator are not the real reasons...

This paper shows how two standard models of consumption risk-sharing?self-insurance through borrowing and saving and limited commitment to insurance contracts?replicate similarly well the standard, second-moment measures of insurance observed in US micro data. A nonparametric analysis, however,...

Using life insurance holdings by age, sex, and marital status, we infer how individuals value consumption in different demographic stages. We estimate equivalence scales and bequest motives simultaneously within a fully specified model where agents face US demographics and save and purchase life...

I investigate the strong negative relation between recent stock returns and the annuitization of retirement savings using a novel data set with over 100,000 actual payout decisions. After controlling for several standard explanations (e.g., wealth effects), I present evidence supporting naïve...

As opposed to institutional investors, individual investors typically have several investment objectives in mind. The traditional utility maximization approach is not only oversimplified but also may not be suitable for real world application. Behavioral asset allocation divides a portfolio into...

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of stock market participation, where consumers' decisions regarding stock market participation are influenced by participation costs. The practical significance of the participation costs is considered as being a channel through which financial...

Over the past years, the financial situation and the retirement prospects of the so-called babyboomers (people born during the demographic Post-World War II baby-boom) have become source of public concern and has attracted a great deal of attention in the US. In Germany, on the contrary, the...