Incomplete-Market Equilibrium with Unhedgeable Fundamentals and Heterogeneous Agents
We solve a general equilibrium model of an incomplete market with heterogeneous preferences, identifying first-order and second-order effects. Several long-lived agents with different absolute risk-aversion and discount rates make consumption and investment decisions, borrowing from and lending to each other, and trading a stock that pays a dividend whose growth rate has random fluctuations over time. For small fluctuations, the first-order equilibrium implies no trading in stocks, the existence of a representative agent, predictability of returns, multi-factor asset pricing, and that agents use a few public signals for consumption, borrowing, and lending. At the second-order, agents dynamically trade stocks and no representative agent exist. Instead, both the interest rate and asset prices depend on the dispersion of agents' preferences and their shares of wealth. Dynamic trading arises from agents' intertemporal hedging motive, even in the absence of personal labor income