Building on the isomorphism between the theories of risk aversion and precautionary saving, an objective index of prudent behavior is introduced, which generalizes the riskiness index set forth by Aumann and Serrano (2008). A benchmark framework for the monotone relation between risk aversion...

This paper suggests a new explanation for the low level of annuitization, which is valid even if one assumes perfect markets. We show that, as soon there is a positive bequest motive, sufficiently risk averse individuals should not purchase annuities. A model calibration accounting for lifetime...

Impersonal default rules, chosen by private or public institutions, establish settings and starting points for countless goods and activities -- cell phones, rental car agreements, computers, savings plans, health insurance, websites, privacy, and much more. Some of these rules do a great deal...

Intermediate microeconomics textbooks employ indifference curve analysis to explain the income and substitution effects of a change in the price of a good x on the demand for it, holding other variables constant. Further, they demonstrate how the shape and slope of the demand curve changes...

We analyze dynamic risk-sharing contracts between profit-maximizing insurers and risk-averse agents who face idiosyncratic income uncertainty and can self-insure through savings. We study Markov-perfect insurance contracts in which neither party can commit beyond the current period. We show that...

We consider a collective model of a household in which each member has a utility function satisfying the weak separability condition. We show that the separability at the individual level carries over to the household level and that the allocation of private goods in any Pareto-efficient...

This paper suggests a new explanation for the low level of annuitization, which is valid even if one assumes perfect markets. We show that, as soon there is a positive bequest motive, sufficiently risk averse individuals should not purchase annuities. A model calibration accounting for lifetime...

The paper investigates Dennis Robertson's effort to defend the Cambridge utilitarian tradition against the “new welfare economics”, developed in the 1930s and 1940s on the basis of Lionel Robbins's influential criticism of the scientific legitimacy of interpersonal comparisons of utility. It...

Recent works suggest that convenient prices that match monetary denominations exhibit above-average price rigidity and are set up by firms that have incentives to be paid in cash. The relationship between convenient prices and cash usage has however never been explicitly examined. This paper...

This paper analyzes market diffusion in the presence of oligopolistic interaction among firms. Market demand is positively related to past market size because of consumer learning, networks, and bandwagon effects. Firms enter the market freely in each period with fixed costs and compete in...