Optimal Illusions and Decisions under Risk

We examine a static one-risk-free-one-risky asset portfolio choice when the investor’s well-being is affected by the anticipatory feelings associated to potential capital gains and losses. These feelings can be manipulated by the choice of subjective beliefs on the distribution of returns. However, the bias of these endogenous subjective beliefs induces the choice of a portfolio that is suboptimal with respect to the objective expected utility of final wealth. We characterize the structure of these optimal beliefs. We first show that optimal subjective beliefs must be degenerated with only two possible returns. Moreover, under some weak conditions on the utility function, these two atoms are at the lower and upper bounds of the objectively feasible returns. When the intensity of anticipatory feelings is small, the formation of beliefs must be biased in favor of optimism, which implies an increase in the equilibrium demand for the risky asset. We also show that the optimal beliefs are approximately independent of the investor’s degree of risk aversion.anticipatory feelings, portfolio choice, overconfidence, positive thinking, endogenous beliefs

Discounting, Inequalities and Economic Convergence

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of inequalities and economic convergence on the efficient discount rate, in the absence of any risk-sharing scheme. We consider an economy in which the initial consumption level and the distribution of consumption growth are heterogeneous. The benchmark case is when inequalities are permanent and relative risk aversion is constant. The discount rate is not affected by inequalities in that case. We first relax the assumption on risk aversion, and we derive conditions under which permanent inequalities reduce the discount rate. If relative prudence is larger than unity, an increase in economic convergence always raises the efficient discount rate. In a realistic calibration exercise, we show that the effect of economic convergence is to triple the discount rate, from less 2% to more than 6%.prudence, temperance, concordance, discount rate

The Consumption-Based Determinants of the Term Structure of Discount Rates

The efficient rate of return of a zero-coupon bond with maturity t is determined by our expectations about the mean (+), variance (-) and skewness (+) of the growth of aggregate consumption between 0 and t . The shape of the yield curve is thus determined by how these moments vary with t . We first examine growth processes in which a higher past economic growth yields a first-degree dominant shift in the distribution of the future economic growth, as assumed for example by Vasicek (1977). We show that when the growth process exhibits such a positive serial correlation, then the yield curve is decreasing if the representative agent is prudent ( u''' > 0), because of the increased risk that it yields for the distant future. A similar definition is proposed for the concept of second-degree stochastic correlation, as observed for example in the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, with the opposite comparative static property holding under temperance ( u''''stochastic dominance, yield curve, far distant future, cost-benefit analysis, prudence, temperance, downside risk

Optimal Portfolio Management for Individual Pension Plans

We explore the various arguments for and against the recommendation that younger households should invest a larger share of their pension wealth in risky assets. The ability of young agents to compensate their financial losses by saving more during their career provides the strongest argument in favour of younger people investing more aggressively in the stock market. Meanreversion in stock returns yields another argument. However, the uninsurability of the risky human capital goes in the opposite direction, together with the imperfect knowledge that young investors have about the distribution of asset returns.dynamic portfolio choice, pension plan, retirement, time horizon