In strictly competitive games, equilibrium mixed strategies are invariant to changes in the ultimate prizes. Dixit & Skeath (1999) argue that this seems counter-intuitive. We show that this invariance is robust to dropping the independence axiom, but is removed if we drop the reduction axiom.

This paper contains an analysis of a simple principal-agent problem illustrating possible problems that may arise when the prinicpal ascribes to the agent subjective probabilities and utilities that are implied by the subjective expected utility model but do not represent the agent's beliefs and...

We present a definition of increasing uncertainty, independent of any notion of subjective probabilities, or of any particular model of preferences.Our notion of an elementary increase in the uncertainty of any act corresponds to the addition of an 'elementary bet' which increases consumption by...

The equity premium puzzle shows that using standard parameters and setup, the Consumption-based Capital Asset Pricing Model's (CCAPM's) prediction of the premium associated with systematic risk is out by an order of magnitude.The object of this paper is to consider the implications of each of...

The 'noise trader' model of De Long et al. provides a plausible account of the determination of the equity premium.Extension of the model to allow for privatization of publicly-owned assets yields insights into the positive political economy of privatization and into the normative question of...

We examine the role of seller bidding and reserve prices in an infinitely repeated independent-private-value (IPV) ascending-price auction.The seller has a single object that she values at zero.At the end of any auction round, she may either sell to the highest bidder or pass-in the object and...

Any meaningful reform of the US Social Security system must deal with the system's current outstanding accumulated unfunded liabilities. The authors model these as a once-off financial liability payable 'tomorrow'. They show that if the equity premium puzzle arises from adverse selection...

What is the relationship between an agent's attitude towards information, and her attitude towards risk? if an agent always prefers more information does this imply that she obyes the independence axiom? We provide a substitution property on preferences that is equivalent to the agent...

This paper analyzes the optimal use of short and long-term share prices in management incentive contracts. A key innovation of our model is that the short-term share price is determined even before the manager has made her effort choice and therefore cannot be informative in the standard...