The Arrow-Pratt (A-P) definitions of absolute and relative risk aversion dominate the discussion of risk aversion and defining “more risk averse”. Ross (Econometrica 49:621–663, 1981) notes, however, that being A-P more risk averse is not sufficient for addressing many important comparative static questions. Consequently he introduces “a new and stronger measure for comparing two agents’ attitu...

In this paper we investigate the optimal investment strategy for a defined contribution (DC) pension plan during the decumulation phrase which is risk-averse and pays close attention to inflation risk. The plan aims to maximize the expected constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility from the terminal wealth by investing the wealth in a financial market consisting of an inflation-indexed bon...

With reference to the EU enlargement, a framework is derived which allows the study of the effect of unemployment benefits on the migration decision. While benefits simply increase the expected gain for risk neutral individuals, they work as an insurance device for risk averse migrants; the results for the two groups might differ. Thus, the migration decision is reformulated as monetary lottery...

High degrees of relative risk aversion induce indeterminacy in cashin-advance economies. This paper Þnds that Taylor-style policies can pre-empt such sunspot equilibria. SpeciÞc policy recommendations depend on the fundamentals of the economy, i.e. the empirically true value of coefficient of relative risk aversion. ∗This paper was written while I was aDFG Heisenberg Fellow. I would like to tha...

This paper presents a simple rational expectations model of intertemporal asset pricing relating instability of stock return characteristics to heterogeneity in investor preferences. Heterogeneity is likely to generate declining aggregate relative risk aversion. This leads to variability in expected asset returns, volatility, and autocorrelation. The stronger this variability is, the more heter...

Individuals’ preferences for risk and inequality are measured through choices between imagined societies and lotteries. The median relative risk aversion, which is often seen to reflect social inequality aversion, is between 2 and 3. Most people are also found to be individually inequality-averse, reflecting a willingness to pay for living in a more equal society. Left-wing voters and women are...

The existing evidence from laboratory experiments suggests that relatively simple heuristics describe observed search behavior better than the optimal stopping rule derived under risk neutrality. Such behavior could be generated by two entirely different classes of decision rules: (i) rules that are optimal conditional on individual utility functions that depart from risk neutrality or (ii) heu...

The objective of this note is to understand the implications for consumption and portfolio choice of the separation of an investor’s risk aversion and elasticity of intertemporal substitution that is made possible by recursive utility, in contrast to expected utility where the two are dictated by the same parameter. In particular, we study whether the optimal dynamic consumption and portfolio d...