Replication by Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III is disrupted on encountering DNA damage. Consequently, specialized Y-family DNA polymerases are used to bypass DNA damage. The protein UmuD is extensively involved in modulating cellular responses to DNA damage and may play a role in DNA polymerase exchange for damage tolerance. In the absence of DNA, UmuD interacts with the α subunit of DNA po...

In this paper, we analyze the effects of money on the market for durable goods both empirically and theoretically. Using monthly US data on personal expenditures on durable goods and the housing market, we estimate from a VAR the dynamic responses of the price and quantity of durable goods and housing to money supply shocks, assuming only that money is neutral in the long-run. We then estimate ...

A major virtue of von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities, for example, in the theory of general financial equilibrium (GFE), is that they ensure time consistency: consumption-portfolio plans (for the future) are in fact executed (in the future) — assuming that there is perfect foresight about relevant endogenous variables. This paper proposes an alternative to expected utility, one which also delive...

Is the observed large increase in consumer indebtedness since the 1980s beneficial for U.S. consumers? This paper quantitatively studies the macroeconomic and welfare implications of relaxing borrowing constraints when consumers exhibit a hyperbolic discounting preference. The model can capture two contrasting views: the positive view, which links increased indebtedness to financial innovation ...

We describe and analyse the portfolio structure of Dutch households using micro panel data from the CentER Savings Survey, 1993-1998. The data allows for a distinction between many types of assets. Moreover, we have information on mortgage debt, consumer debt, etc. We analyse the composition of household portfolios and the level of portfolio diversification, and its relation to age, birth cohor...

Pension Plan Characteristics and Framing Effects in Employee Savings Behavior In this paper we document the importance of framing effects in the retirement savings decisions of college professors. Pensions in many post-secondary institutions are funded by a combination of an employer contribution and a mandatory employee contribution. Employees can also make tax-deferred contributions to a supp...

In his seminal work, Constantinides (1986) finds that transaction cost has only a second order effect on liquidity premia. In this paper, we show that incorporating the well-established time-varying return dynamics across trading and nontrading periods can produce a first order effect that is much greater than that found by the existing literature and comparable to empirical evidence. Surprisin...

This paper argues that the relation between temptations and the level of consumption plays a key role in explaining the observed behaviors of the poor. Temptation goods are defined to be the set of goods that generate positive utility for the self that consumes them, but not for any previous self that anticipates that they will be consumed in the future. We show that the assumption of declining...

Does the existence of secondary markets for durable goods affect price and allocation on primary markets? We study competitive equilibria for durable goods where the possibility of future trade on secondary markets does not affect consumer behaviour in the primary market, provided consumers are exponential discounters. If consumers are hyperbolic discounters, however, secondary markets are no l...

The economic costs of climate change can be large, or perhaps non-existent. We cannot tell before experiencing climate change, and thus the social cost of carbon is partly based on subjective beliefs. We take a dataset of estimates for the carbon price as a representation of beliefs, and develop a tractable stochastic climate-economy model that replicates the distribution of estimates. We use t...