Biased Bayesian Learning and the Risk-Free Rate Puzzle

Alexander Ludwig, Alexander Zimper
2009 Social Science Research Network  
According to the risk-free rate puzzle the return on safe assets is much lower than predicted by standard representative agent models of consumption based asset pricing. Based on non-additive probability measures arising in Choquet decision theory we develop a closed-form model of Bayesian learning in which the Choquet estimator of the mean consumption growth rate does not converge to its "true" value. It rather expresses a bias that reflects the agent's ambiguity about his estimator. We
more » ... te the standard equilibrium conditions of the consumption based asset pricing model to demonstrate that our approach contributes to a resolution of the riskfree rate puzzle when the agent's learning process exhibits a moderate degree of ambiguity that is resolved in a pessimistic way.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.1534662 fatcat:wf2xdfytbrdbxdcs2etktryxf4