Replication data for: Optimal Expectations

Version
V0
Resource Type
Dataset
Creator
- Brunnermeier, Markus K.
- Parker, Jonathan A.
Publication Date
2005-09-01
Description
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Abstract
Forward-looking agents care about expected future utility flows, and hence have higher current felicity if they are optimistic. This paper studies utility-based biases in beliefs by supposing that beliefs maximize average felicity, optimally balancing this benefit of optimism against the costs of worse decision making. A small optimistic bias in beliefs typically leads to first-order gains in anticipatory utility and only second-order costs in realized outcomes. In a portfolio choice example, investors overestimate their return and exhibit a preference for skewness; in general equilibrium, investors' prior beliefs are endogenously heterogeneous. In a consumption-saving example, consumers are both overconfident and overoptimistic.
Availability
Download
Relations
-
Is supplement to
DOI: 10.1257/0002828054825493 (Text)
Publications
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Brunnermeier, Markus K, and Jonathan A Parker. “Optimal Expectations.” American Economic Review 95, no. 4 (August 2005): 1092–1118. https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828054825493.
- ID: 10.1257/0002828054825493 (DOI)
Update Metadata: 2020-05-18 | Issue Number: 2 | Registration Date: 2019-12-06