This paper proposes a new interpretation for the precautionary saving motive: when future income is uncertain, agents increase saving in order to cause a reduction in the disutility due to uncertainty. Furthermore the paper shows that the usual necessary and sufficient condition for...

Consider a simple two-state risk with equal probabilities for the two states. In particular, assume that the random wealth variable Xi dominates Yi via ith-order stochastic dominance for i = M,N. We show that the 50-50 lottery [XN + YM, YN + XM] dominates the lottery [XN + XM, YN + YM] via (N +...

We study the case of a competitive firm exposed to both input and output price risk. In an expected utility framework, we elicit the separation theorem, and show the positive impact of derivatives markets on the optimal output. We also show that in the case of several inputs, the risk-averse...

The aim of this paper is to examine portfolio management of emission allowances in the US Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Allowance Trading Program, to determine whether utilities have a real motive to bank when risk increases. We test a theoretical model linking the motivation of the firm to...

In this letter, we show that the results presented by Jindapon and Neilson (2007) for changes in risk à la Ekern (1980) can be generalized to mean-preserving stochastic dominance changes, with appropriate and simple additional conditions on the utility function.

Although there has been much attention in recent years on the effects of additive background risks, the same is not true for its multiplicative counterpart. We consider random wealth of the multiplicative form xy, where x and y are statistically independent random variables. We assume that y is...