In a model of a two-period exchange economy under uncertainty, we find both upper and lower bounds for the risk free interest rate when the agents' utility functions exhibit constant absolute risk aversion. These bounds are independent of the degree of market incompleteness, and so in particular...

In this paper, I present a theory of dynamic economic growth, business cycles, and asset pricing that integrates (1) Marx's idea (and emphasized by Klein) of a two-class heterogeneity of the ownership structure of physical capital and human capital in a capitalist society, (2) Keynes' idea of...

This paper develops a general equilibrium model for a representative agent, production economy with stochastic internal habit formation. The model describes a scale-independent economy, with a unique stochastic investment opportunity set. Local correlation between the stochastic interest rate...

This paper challenges the view that alternative consumption measures (garbage, fourth quarter, unfiltered consumption) can address the shortcomings of consumption-based asset pricing. When the CRRA model is confronted with the cross-section of asset returns and the risk-free rate volatility, the...

Are securities markets more liquid when the economy is more liquid? If so, why? One possibility is that market depth depends on credit constrained intermediaries. This paper offers another explanation, which does not involve frictions or market segmentation. Measuring market illiquidity by the...

Previous writers have attempted to resolve the equity premium puzzle by employing a utility function that depends on current consumption minus (or relative to) past habit consumption. This paper points out that an individual's current utility may also depend upon how well off in the recent past...

This paper introduces state dependent utility into the standard Mehra and Prescott (1985) economy by allowing the representative agent's coefficient of relative risk aversion to vary with the underlying economy's growth rate. Existence of equilibrium is proved and its asymptotic properties...

This paper characterizes the solution to the consumption/savings decision problem in the presence of consumption commitments (goods that involve fixed transaction costs and are infrequently adjusted). The findings in recent theoretical literature have suggested that consumption commitments may...

A negative real interest rate has guaranteed macroeconomic equilibrium during every emergency in the United States since the early 19th century, except the Great Depression in the 1930s when deflation interfered with the interest rate mechanism. During the Great Depression, the interest rate...

We analyze an equilibrium model in which agents exposed to idiosyncratic risk can purchase insurance policies in addition to financial assets. The price of an insurance contract depends nonlinearly on the claims and explicitly contains safety loadings, proportional to variance. We consider...