Strategic Exploitation of a Common-Property Resource under Uncertainty

in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2013), 65(1), 28-39

We construct a game of noncooperative common-resource exploitation which delivers analytical solutions for its symmetric Markov-perfect Nash equilibrium. We examine how introducing uncertainty to the ... [more ▼]

We construct a game of noncooperative common-resource exploitation which delivers analytical solutions for its symmetric Markov-perfect Nash equilibrium. We examine how introducing uncertainty to the natural law of resource reproduction affects strategic exploitation. We show that the commons problem is always present in our example and we identify cases in which increases in risk amplify or mitigate the commons problem. For a specific class of games which imply Markov-perfect strategies that are linear in the resource stock (our example belongs to this class), we provide general results on how payoff-function features affect the responsiveness of exploitation strategies to changes in riskiness. These broader characterizations of games which imply linear strategies (appearing in an Online Appendix) can be useful in future work, given the technical difficulties that may arise by the possible nonlinearity of Markov-perfect strategies in more general settings. [less ▲]

Saving Rates and Portfolio Choice with Subsistence Consumption

in Review of Economic Dynamics (2012), 105(1), 108-126

We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of ... [more ▼]

We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively and quantitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the higher fraction of personal wealth held in risky assets by the rich, and (iii) the higher volatility of consumption of the wealthier. On the contrary, time-variant "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" weighted average consumption which plays the role of moving benchmark subsistence consumption gives the same portfolio composition and saving rates across the rich and the poor, failing to reconcile the model with what micro data say. [less ▲]

Asset Pricing under Rational Learning about Rare Disasters

Report (2011)

This paper proposes a new approach for modeling investor fear after rare disasters. The key element is to take into account that investors' information about fundamentals driving rare downward jumps in ... [more ▼]

This paper proposes a new approach for modeling investor fear after rare disasters. The key element is to take into account that investors' information about fundamentals driving rare downward jumps in the dividend process is not perfect. Bayesian learning implies that beliefs about the likelihood of rare disasters drop to a much more pessimistic level once a disaster has occurred. Such a shift in beliefs can trigger massive declines in price-dividend ratios. Pessimistic beliefs persist for some time. Thus, belief dynamics are a source of apparent excess volatility relative to a rational expectations benchmark. Due to the low frequency of disasters, even an infinitely-lived investor will remain uncertain about the exact probability. Our analysis is conducted in continuous time and offers closed-form solutions for asset prices. We distinguish between rational and adaptive Bayesian learning. Rational learners account for the possibility of future changes in beliefs in determining their demand for risky assets, while adaptive learners take beliefs as given. Thus, risky assets tend to be lower-valued and price-dividend ratios vary less under adaptive versus rational learning for identical priors. [less ▲]

Confronting the Representative Consumer with Household-Size Heterogeneity

Report (2010)

Much analysis in macroeconomics empirically addresses economy-wide incentives behind consumer/investment choices by using insights from the way a single representative household would behave ... [more ▼]

Much analysis in macroeconomics empirically addresses economy-wide incentives behind consumer/investment choices by using insights from the way a single representative household would behave. Heterogeneity at the micro level can jeopardize attempts to back up the representative consumer construct with microfoundations. One complex aspect of micro-level heterogeneity is household size, as individuals living in multi-member households have the potential to share goods within the household, benefiting from household-size economies. Theoretically, we show that validating the role of a representative consumer would require that the way individuals benefit from intra-household sharing is strictly aligned across the rich and the poor: once expenditures for subsistence needs are subtracted from disposable household income, household-size economies the remainder (discretionary) household incomes entail must be the same across the rich and the poor. We have designed a survey method that allows the testing of this stringent property of intra-household sharing and find that it holds. [less ▲]

Non-Market Household Time and the cost of Children

in Journal of Business and Economic Statistics (2009), 27(1), 42-51

Raising children demands a considerable amount of parental time, obliging working parents either to reduce their leisure time further or to buy childcare services in the market. Parents may face ... [more ▼]

Raising children demands a considerable amount of parental time, obliging working parents either to reduce their leisure time further or to buy childcare services in the market. Parents may face additional opportunity costs upon deciding to participate in the labor market, but these are difficult to measure. Using a survey instrument in Belgium and Germany, we estimate the income compensation needed to maintain family well-being when adults work versus when they do not enter the labor market. In both countries we find that full-time working parents face extra child costs and require higher labor market participation compensation compared with childless adults. [less ▲]

Arbeitslosengeld II: Arbeitsanreize und Verteilungsgerechtigkeit

in Wirtschaftsdienst (Hamburg, Germany : 1949) (2008), 88(7), 461-466

Die Zusammenlegung von Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilfe hatte unter anderem das Ziel, die Arbeitsanreize für arbeitsfähige Leistungsempfänger zu stärken. Wie sind die Anreizwirkungen zu bewerten? Wirkt ... [more ▼]

Die Zusammenlegung von Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilfe hatte unter anderem das Ziel, die Arbeitsanreize für arbeitsfähige Leistungsempfänger zu stärken. Wie sind die Anreizwirkungen zu bewerten? Wirkt der durch Arbeitslosengeld II erreichbare Lebensstandard negativ bei der Entscheidung für eine Arbeitsaufnahme? Werden kinderreiche Familien bei den ALG-II-Leistungen benachteiligt? [less ▲]

The Effects of Market Structure on Industry Growth: Rivalrous Non-excludable Capital

in Journal of Economic Theory (2007), 133

We analyze imperfect competition in dynamic environments where firms use rivalrous but nonexcludable industry-specific capital that is provided exogenously. Capital depreciation depends on utilization, so ... [more ▼]

We analyze imperfect competition in dynamic environments where firms use rivalrous but nonexcludable industry-specific capital that is provided exogenously. Capital depreciation depends on utilization, so firms influence the evolution of the capital equipment through more or less intensive supply in the final-goods market. Strategic incentives stem from, (i) a dynamic externality, arising due to the non-excludability of the capital stock, leading firms to compete for its use (rivalry), and, (ii) a market externality, leading to the classic Cournot-type supply competition. Comparing alternative market structures, we isolate the effect of these externalities on strategies and industry growth. [less ▲]

Investment in a Monopoly with Bayesian Learning

Report (2006)

We study how learning affects an uninformed monopolist's supply and investment decisions under multiplicative uncertainty in demand. The monopolist is uninformed because it does not know one of the ... [more ▼]

We study how learning affects an uninformed monopolist's supply and investment decisions under multiplicative uncertainty in demand. The monopolist is uninformed because it does not know one of the parameters defining the distribution of the random demand. Observing prices reveals this information slowly. We first show how to incorporate Bayesian learning into dynamic programming by focusing on sufficient statistics and conjugate families of distributions. We show their necessity in dynamic programming to be able to solve dynamic programs either analytically or numerically. This is important since it is not true that a solution to the infinite-horizon program can be found either analytically or numerically for any kinds of distributions. We then use specific distributions to study the monopolist?s behavior. Specifically, we rely on the fact that the family of normal distributions with an unknown mean is a conjugate family for samples from a normal distribution to obtain closed- form solutions for the optimal supply and investment decisions. This enables us to study the effect of learning on supply and investment decisions, as well as the steady state level of capital. Our findings are as follows. Learning affects the monopolist's behavior. The higher the expected mean of the demand shock given its beliefs, the higher the supply and the lower the investment. Although learning does not affect the steady state level of capital since the uninformed monopolist becomes informed in the limit, it reduces the speed of convergence to the steady state. [less ▲]

Preferences and the Dynamic Representative Consumer

Report (2005)

This paper provides families of time-separable, twice continuously differentiable, and strictly concave utility functions of a group of consumers that are both suffcient and necessary in order to have ... [more ▼]

This paper provides families of time-separable, twice continuously differentiable, and strictly concave utility functions of a group of consumers that are both suffcient and necessary in order to have linear aggregation in a single-commodity-type deterministic dynamic environment, in the presence of consumer wealth-, labor-productivity, and preference heterogeneity, for alternative settings where the rates of time preference can be the same or different across consumers. The employed concept of linear aggregation pertains the existence of a representative consumer with a time-separable utility function. It is proved that when the rates of time preference are choice-independent and heterogeneous across consumers, a representative consumer exists if, and only if, the momentary utility functions of all consumers are exponential. Results are also provided for, (i) common across consumers choice-independent rates of time preference, and, (ii) heterogeneous choice-dependent rates of time preference, and compared with previously identified sufficient conditions for aggregation in the existing literature. [less ▲]

A Glance at Some Fundamental Public Economics Issues Through a Parametric Lens

in Schmidt, Ulrich; Traub, Stefan (Eds.) Advances in Public Economics: Utility, Choice and Welfare, 38 (2005)