Empirical rejections of life cycle models of aggregate consumption are reviewed and an alternative specification is proposed. Observable implication of Euler equations are used to estimate parameters of the utility function using Generalized Method of Moments using monthly U.S. post-war data....

The paper investigates portfolio strategies and derivative market making when the trader does not know the correct model. One of the puzzles from last summer's LTCM collapse was that when the Russian government defaulted, liquidity dried up. Antidotal evidence suggests that people were unable to...

Prices of riskfree bonds in any arbitrage-free environment are governed by a pricing kernel: given a kernel, we can compute prices of bonds of any maturity we like. We use observed prices of multi-period bonds to estimate, in a log-linear theoretical setting, the pricing kernel that gave rise to...

Much recent business cycle research focuses on moments of macroeconomic aggregates. We construct examples of real business cycle sample paths for output, consumption, and employment for the U.S. economy. Annual sample paths are generated from an initial condition in 1925, measured technology and...