This is the first book to investigate individual's pessimistic and optimistic prospects for the future and their economic consequences based on sound mathematical foundations. The book focuses on fundamental uncertainty called Knightian uncertainty, where the probability distribution governing uncertainty is unknown, and it provides the reader with methods to formulate how pessimism and optimism act in an economy in a strict and unified way. After presenting decision-theoretic foundations for prudent behaviors under Knightian uncertainty, the book applies these ideas to economic models that include portfolio inertia, indeterminacy of equilibria in the Arrow-Debreu economy and in a stochastic overlapping-generations economy, learning, dynamic asset-pricing models, search, real options, and liquidity preferences. The book then proceeds to characterizations of pessimistic ( -contaminated) and optimistic ( -exuberant) behaviors under Knightian uncertainty and people's inherent pessimism (surprise aversion) and optimism (surprise loving). Those characterizations are shown to be useful in understanding several observed behaviors in the global financial crisis and in its aftermath. The book is highly recommended not only to researchers who wish to understand the mechanism of how pessimism and optimism affect economic phenomena, but also to policy makers contemplating effective economic policies whose success delicately hinges upon people's mindsets in the market.
Kiyohiko Nishimura is Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Project Research Fellow of the Center for Advanced Research in Finance at The University of Tokyo. Hiroyuki Ozaki is Professor of Economics at Keio University.
Kiyohiko Nishimura is Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Project Research Fellow of the Center for Advanced Research in Finance at The University of Tokyo. Hiroyuki Ozaki is Professor of Economics at Keio University.
This book was awarded the 61st Nikkei Prize for Excellent Books in Economic Science 2018 by The Japan Center for Economic Research
"To summarize, this book, jointly written by the two prominent economists Nishimura and Ozaki, is no doubt a monumental achievement on the economics of ambiguity and uncertainty. It is well organized and mathematically sophisticated. It is expected to be read by two types of readers: highly mathematically trained researchers and general theoretical scholars with less technical orientation. I believe that application-oriented researchers and policy-makers may also benefit from careful reading of such a first-rate work." (Yasuhiro Sakai, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 72, June, 2019)
"The recent monograph by Nishimura and Ozaki, entitled Economics of Pessimism and Optimism: Theory of Knightian Uncertainty and Its Applications, provides a summary of this exciting new research. ... Despitebeing limited to the CEU/MEUformulation of Knightian Uncertainty, the recent monograph by Nishimura and Ozaki is an ideal resource for those looking to catch up to the current research frontier on Knightian Uncertainty. It is well written and well organized." (Ken Kasa, International Finance, February, 15, 2019)
"Kiyohiko Nishimura and Hiroyuki Ozaki have produced a thorough, scholarly, and mathematical rigorous treatment of decision theory when the probability distribution governing uncertainty is unknown ... . Nishimura and Ozaki are to be congratulated on their thorough and innovative treatment of how to use convex Choquet capacities to make fundamental uncertainty operational, under certain assumptions. Their book will be indispensable to, and warmly welcomed by, technically oriented researchers in decision theory." (Robert W. Dimand, Journal of Economics, Vol. 124, 2018)
"To summarize, this book, jointly written by the two prominent economists Nishimura and Ozaki, is no doubt a monumental achievement on the economics of ambiguity and uncertainty. It is well organized and mathematically sophisticated. It is expected to be read by two types of readers: highly mathematically trained researchers and general theoretical scholars with less technical orientation. I believe that application-oriented researchers and policy-makers may also benefit from careful reading of such a first-rate work." (Yasuhiro Sakai, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 72, June, 2019)
"The recent monograph by Nishimura and Ozaki, entitled Economics of Pessimism and Optimism: Theory of Knightian Uncertainty and Its Applications, provides a summary of this exciting new research. ... Despitebeing limited to the CEU/MEUformulation of Knightian Uncertainty, the recent monograph by Nishimura and Ozaki is an ideal resource for those looking to catch up to the current research frontier on Knightian Uncertainty. It is well written and well organized." (Ken Kasa, International Finance, February, 15, 2019)
"Kiyohiko Nishimura and Hiroyuki Ozaki have produced a thorough, scholarly, and mathematical rigorous treatment of decision theory when the probability distribution governing uncertainty is unknown ... . Nishimura and Ozaki are to be congratulated on their thorough and innovative treatment of how to use convex Choquet capacities to make fundamental uncertainty operational, under certain assumptions. Their book will be indispensable to, and warmly welcomed by, technically oriented researchers in decision theory." (Robert W. Dimand, Journal of Economics, Vol. 124, 2018)