IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Login to save this article or follow this journal

Optimal consumption and investment under time-varying relative risk aversion

Author Info

  • Steffensen, Mogens
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    We consider the continuous time consumption-investment problem originally formalized and solved by Merton in case of constant relative risk aversion. We present a complete solution for the case where relative risk aversion with respect to consumption varies with time, having in mind an investor with age-dependent risk aversion. This provides a new motivation for life-cycle investment rules. We study the optimal consumption and investment rules, in particular in the case where the relative risk aversion with respect to consumption is increasing with age.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V85-51R4SKJ-2/2/47c55647d4f7446b86031441e4cc10cf
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.

    Volume (Year): 35 (2011)
    Issue (Month): 5 (May)
    Pages: 659-667

    as
    in new window

    Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:35:y:2011:i:5:p:659-667
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc

    Keywords: Merton's problem Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation Marginal indirect utility Life-cycle investment;

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

    as in new window
    1. Aase, Knut K., 2009. "The investment horizon problem: A resolution," Discussion Papers 2009/7, Department of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics.
    2. Li, George, 2007. "Time-varying risk aversion and asset prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 243-257, January.
    3. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-57, August.
    4. Merton, Robert C., 1971. "Optimum consumption and portfolio rules in a continuous-time model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 373-413, December.
    5. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Stefan Nagel, 2008. "Do Wealth Fluctuations Generate Time-Varying Risk Aversion? Micro-evidence on Individuals," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 713-36, June.
    6. Munk, Claus, 2008. "Portfolio and consumption choice with stochastic investment opportunities and habit formation in preferences," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 3560-3589, November.
    7. Peter Lakner & Lan Ma Nygren, 2006. "Portfolio Optimization With Downside Constraints," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 283-299.
    8. Horace Ho, 2009. "An Experimental Study of Risk Aversion in Decision-making Under Uncertainty," International Advances in Economic Research, International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 15(4), pages 369-377, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

    as in new window


    Cited by:

    1. Blake, David & Wright, Douglas & Zhang, Yumeng, 2011. "Target-driven investing: Optimal investment strategies in defined contribution pension plans under loss aversion," MPRA Paper 34278, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Marekwica, Marcel & Schaefer, Alexander & Sebastian, Steffen, 2013. "Life cycle asset allocation in the presence of housing and tax-deferred investing," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1110-1125.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:35:y:2011:i:5:p:659-667. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Zhang, Lei)

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.