In technology adoption, herd behaviour can lead to a suboptimal outcome. An example is given by Choi (1997): it is a model of technology choice under uncertainty where herding arises because of strategic complementarities and risk aversion. It causes a positive experimenting bias against the...

We introduce a simple measure of risk aversion in the large. Besides satisfying properties which are conceptually analogous to the usual properties of the Arrow-Pratt measure, the index of risk aversion in the large leads to a stronger concept of decreasing risk aversion, which necessarily...

This paper introduces and investigates the concept of repetitive risk aversion. The risk aversion of an increasing and concave utility function is repetitive if the fear of ruin, which measures agent's aversion to risking his entire income, is also increasing and concave. This is shown to be...

We prove that the coefficient of absolute prudence is greater than k - times coefficient of absolute risk aversion for the utility function if and only if the coefficient of absolute prudence is (3-k) times the coefficient of absolute risk aversion for the inverse utility function. Moreover this...

The standard state-spaces of asymmetric information preclude non-trivial forms of unawareness (Dekel, Lipman and Rustichini, 1998). We introduce a generalized state-space model that allows for non-trivial unawareness among several individuals, and which satisfies strong properties of knowledge...

A partly heuristic attempt at exploring long-run policies aimed at a second-best compromise between ex ante risk-sharing efficiency and ex post productive efficiency. Wage subsidies for low-skilled workers financed by taxes on high wages are advocated, together with improved risk sharing between...

Asymmetric information concerns either commodities or mutually exclusive states of the world. The notion of competitive equilibrium differs between the two cases. In particular, incentive compatibility constraints are only relevant in the case of asymmetric information concerning mutually...

In perfectly competitive economies under uncertainty, there is a well-known equivalence between a formulation with contingent goods and a formulation with state-specific securities followed by spot markets for goods. In this paper, I examine whether this equivalence carries over in a particular...

The competitive equilibrium correspondence, which associates equilibrium prices of commodities and assets with allocations of endowments, identifies the preferences and beliefs of individals also under uncertainty; this is the case even if the asset market is incomplete.

This paper presents an overlapping generations model of environmental externalities with a depollution technology. We show that if an agent is sufficiently risk averse, voluntary contribution is a decreasing function of average efficiency of depollution technology. If on the contrary, the...