We extend Samuelson's (1969) discrete-time dynamic consumption and investment optimization problem to the case where the investor is intolerant of any decline in her standard of living. This constraint represents a strong form of habit formation such that the consumption rate is non-decreasing...

This paper studies how the interaction between two types of uncertainty due to ignorance affects strategic consumption-portfolio rules, precautionary savings, and welfare in general equilibrium. We incorporate these two types of uncertainties into a recursive utility version of a canonical...

This paper develops a dynamic model of rational behavior under uncertainty, in which the agent maximizes the stream of future τ-quantile utilities, for τ ∈ (0, 1). That is, the agent has a quantile utility preference instead of the standard expected utility. Quantile preferences have useful...

We build a robustness (RB) version of the Obstfeld (1994) model to study the effects of financial integration on growth and welfare. Our model can account for the empirically observed heterogeneity in the relationship between growth and volatility for different countries. The calibrated model...

We introduce the new class of Performance measures Adjusted for the Risk Situation (PARS), which incorporate individual risk characteristics in the financial performance measure. The (risk) situation of an individual or company is represented by all of its future cash flows including (financial)...

This paper solves a general continuous-time consumption and portfolio decision problem for a single agent for whom there exists, upon bankruptcy, a possibility of recovery from his bankruptcy. The main contribution of the paper is in the modeling of the recovery process. Moreover, it is shown...

We consider a discrete-time optimal consumption and investment problem of an investor who is interested in maximizing his utility from consumption and terminal wealth subject to a random inflation in the consumption basket price over time. We consider two cases: (i) when the investor observes...

There exists one potential source which has not obtained full treatment in the recent consumption literature: a negative wealth constraint (NWC). An economic agent who faces the NWC can borrow up to a certain proportion of the present value of labor income. We present an analytically tractable...

In private pre-funded retirement savings systems, workers can be compelled by regulation to make minimum contributions to retirement accounts. We examine the impact of compulsory contributions into retirement savings (superannuation) accounts on individuals' lifetime consumption and wealth using...

his paper provides a tractable continuous-time constant-absolute-risk averse (CARA)-Gaussian framework to quantitatively explore how the preference for robustness (RB) affects the interest rate, the dynamics of consumption and income, and the welfare costs of model uncertainty in general...