In this paper, we advance a definition of greater downside risk aversion that applies to both large and small changes in risk preference, and thereby complements the results for small changes reported previously. We show that a downside risk-averse transformation of a utility function results in...

Willingness to take on risk is influenced by the presence of fair and unfair background risks for decision makers who are risk vulnerable as defined by Gollier and Pratt [1996], for these decision makers are more risk averse when they possess such an uninsurable background risk. We present an...

We present two theorems that provide necessary and sufficient conditions for an expected utility maximizer to become more risk averse in the sense of Ross with respect to bearing a foreground risk after the introduction of any independent fair or unfair additive background risk. We call these...

We show that a natural weakening of diagonal dominance resolves the incompatibility of its standard formulation with the tatonnement of competitive market economies in the presence of either zero-degree homogeneity or Walras’ Law. It thus yields global stability of such unnormalized...

This paper constructs a reduced-form credit risk model of mortgage default. The data used is of privately-securitized subprime ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages), originated between 1997 and 2008, and observed between 2000 and 2009. The period studied thus encompasses the beginning of the subprime...

This paper examines the valuation of fixed-rate mortgages and the pricing of insurance against default on such mortgages. Both the mortgage and the insurance are treated as compound European put options. A put is the right, but not the obligation, to turn over an asset to another party for a...

The same option-based methodology now commonly used to value mortgages and their termination features also can be applied to calculate the probabilities that mortgage default will occur. This paper pursues that idea, and furthermore, enriches the idealized option-based approach by introducing...

Various studies have examined whether increased uncertainty about the non-Nash response of others to an individual's voluntary contribution to a public good affects that individual's contribution so as to mitigate the free-rider problem. We extend this single-agent approach to the analysis of a...