The "standard" Merton formulation of optimal investment and consumption involves optimizing the integrated lifetime utility of consumption, suitably discounted, together with the discounted future bequest. In this formulation the utility of consumption at any given time depends only on the...

This paper analyzes popular time-nonseparable utility functions that describe "habit formation" consumer preferences comparing current consumption with the time averaged past consumption of the same individual and "catching up with the Joneses" (CuJ) models comparing individual consumption with...