The preferred risk habitat hypothesis, introduced here, is that individual investors select stocks with volatilities … commensurate with their risk aversion; more risk-averse individuals pick lower-volatility stocks. The investors' portfolio … stocks are sold they are replaced by stocks of similar volatilities, and the more risk averse customers indeed hold less …

In this paper, we study the determinants of the value of informal risk sharing groups. In particular, we look at the … if individuals can deviate form risk sharing agreements in coalitions or not. We test empirically several predictable … size of risk sharing groups can be rejected or that only imperfect risk sharing is obtained within the village because of …

risk management through contracting, and designing markets and regulation to ensure effective and sustainable competition …. Restructuring is problematic, requiring forceful competition authorities with a clear agenda to achieve desirable structural reforms …. Finally, proactive competition policies will be necessary to resist the powerful forces for vertical and horizontal …

privately the cost of investing. Multiple efforts have to be compensated for, but competition helps to erode innovators …' informational rents, since innovators are more likely to lose the competition if they inflate investment costs. Consequently …, competition leads to faster innovation, because the investor has less of a need to delay expensive investments. The investor …