A large strand of research has identified when (i) a single risk is undesirable and (ii) two independent risks aggravate each other. We extend this line of inquiry by establishing when (iii) mutual aggravation is greater for greater risks. This natural property of \textit{greater mutual...

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...

Although risk aversion has been used in economic models for over 275 years, the past few decades have shown how higher order risk attitudes are also quite important. A behavioral approach to defining such risk attitudes was developed by Eeckhoudt and Schlesinger (2006), based upon simple lottery...

Credit risk is pervasive throughout financial markets. Traditionally, various financial institutions have assumed the burden of credit risk. Banks have supported the credit risk attached to bank loans and forward contracts. Credit insurance companies have provided coverage for the commercial...

This article focuses on two cornerstone results in insurance economics: Mossin's Theorem on the optimality of full versus partial coverage, and Arrow's Theorem on the optimality of straight deductible policies. Both of these results are examined in a model assuming only risk aversion, and not...

We examine how long-term life insurance contracts can be designed to incorporate uncertain future bequest needs. An individual who buys a life insurance contract early in life is often uncertain about the future financial needs of his or her family, in the event of an untimely death. Ideally,...

Decisions under risk are often multidimensional, where the preferences of the decision maker depend on several attributes. For example, an individual might be concerned about both her level of wealth and the condition of her health. Many times the signs of successive cross derivatives of a...

This paper examines preferences towards particular classes of lottery pairs. We show how concepts such as prudence and temperance can be fully characterized by a preference relation over these lotteries. If preferences are defined in an expected-utility framework with differentiable utility, the...