Asset and Commodity Prices with Multiattribute Durable Goods

We consider a pure exchange representative agent economy with perishable and durable commodities in which the durable good provides status as well as services. We examine the effects of the durable's attributes on demands and equilibrium prices. When the attributes are perfect substitutes irreversibility of the durable's purchases may cause temporary excesses of actual services over their desired level. Stickiness in adjustment is asymmetric since increases in desired status level are met by immediate purchases. We show that the equilibrium interest rate depends, in particular, on the growth rates of the durable's attributes and that asset risk premia satisfy a two-beta consumption CAPM. Conditions under which durability increases asset risk premia are provided. Nous considérons une économie de pur échange à agent représentatif avec biens périssables et durables dans laquelle le bien durable procure du statut ainsi que des services. Nous examinons les effets de ces deux attributs du bien durable sur les demandes et les prix d'équilibre. Lorsque les attributs sont des substituts parfaits l'irréversibilité des achats du durable peut créer des excès temporaires de services courants par rapport à leur niveau désiré. L'inflexibilité de l'ajustement est asymmétrique puisqu'une augmentation du niveau de statut désiré est réalisée par des achats immédiats. Nous démontrons que le taux d'intérêt d'équilibre dépend, en particulier, des taux de croissance des attributs du bien durable et que les primes de risque vérifient un MÉDAF de consommation à deux bétas. Nous examinons les conditions sous lesquelles la durabilité augmente les primes de risque des actifs financiers.Durables, status attribute, services, asset and commodity prices, interest rate, Biens durables, statut, services, prix des actifs et des biens, taux d'intérêt.

Optimal Event-Driven Multi-Agent Persistent Monitoring of a Finite Set of Targets

We consider the problem of controlling the movement of multiple cooperating agents so as to minimize an uncertainty metric associated with a finite number of targets. In a one-dimensional mission space, we adopt an optimal control framework and show that the solution is reduced to a simpler parametric optimization problem: determining a sequence of locations where each agent may dwell for a finite amount of time and then switch direction. This amounts to a hybrid system which we analyze using Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis (IPA) to obtain a complete on-line solution through an event-driven gradient-based algorithm which is also robust with respect to the uncertainty model used. The resulting controller depends on observing the events required to excite the gradient-based algorithm, which cannot be guaranteed. We solve this problem by proposing a new metric for the objective function which creates a potential field guaranteeing that gradient values are non-zero. This approach is compared to an alternative graph-based task scheduling algorithm for determining an optimal sequence of target visits. Simulation examples are included to demonstrate the proposed methods.Comment: 12 pages full version, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 201

On the Consequences of State Dependent Preferences for the Pricing of Financial Assets

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 analyzed. This generalization leads to level dependent marginal rates of substitution, a property that sharply distinguishes this model from the standard construct. For very low coefficients of relative risk aversion, the equilibrium risk free and risky security returns are demonstrated to have volatilities and an associated equity premium that substantially exceed what is found in the data. This provides a contrasting perspective on the classic "equity premium puzzle."state dependent utility; equity premium; equity premium puzzle