Generalized stochastic differential utility and preference for information

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Abstract: This paper develops, in a Brownian information setting, an approach for analyzing the preference for information, a question that motivates the stochastic differential utility (SDU) due to Duffie and Epstein [Econometrica 60 (1992) 353-394]. For a class of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) including the generalized SDU [Lazrak and Quenez Math. Oper. Res. 28 (2003) 154-180], we formulate the information neutrality property as an invariance principle when the filtration is coarser (or finer) and characterize it. We also provide concrete examples of heterogeneity in information that illustrate explicitly the nonneutrality property for some GSDUs. Our results suggest that, within the GSDUs class of intertemporal utilities, risk aversion or ambiguity aversion are inflexibly linked to the preference for information.


This paper studies the preference for information for a specific class of intertemporal utilities. For a fixed consumption horizon \(T> 0\), a utility function is a function mapping the set of objects of choice, that is, the pairs of state contingent consumption process \(c= \{c_t,\,0\leq t\leq T\}\) and information filtration \({\mathcal A}= \{{\mathcal A}_t,\,0\leq t\leq T\}\) satisfying the usual conditions, into \(\mathbb{R}\). The question of preference for information consists in analyzing the dependency of a utility function on its filtration information argument. This specific question has been greatly simplified within the familiar context of the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility. Specifically, an expected utility function is defined by \[ U^{{\mathcal A}}_t(c)= E\Biggl[\int^T_t e^{-\beta(s- t)}v(c_s)\, ds\,\left|\,{\mathcal A}_t\Biggr]\right.\tag{\(*\)} \] for time \(t< T\), \(v(\cdot)\) is the felicity function and the expectation \(E\) is conditioned by the time \(t\) available information \({\mathcal A}_t\). In fact, the expected utility model \((*)\) does not allow for preference for information in the sense that if \({\mathcal A}\subsetneq{\mathcal B}\) are two filtrations such that both \({\mathcal A}_0\) and \({\mathcal B}_0\) are trivial \(U^{{\mathcal A}}_0(c)= U^{{\mathcal B}}_0(c)\) for any \({\mathcal A}\)-adapted consumption process \(c\).











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