Preferences with Taste Shock Representations: Price Volatility and the Liquidity Premium

If price volatility is caused in some part by taste shocks, then it should be positively correlated with the liquidity premium. Our argument is based on Krishna and Sadowski (2014), who provide foundations for a representation of dynamic choice with taste shocks, and show that volatility in tastes corresponds to a desire to maintain flexibility. To formally connect volatile tastes to price volatility and preference for flexibility to the liquidity premium, we analyze a modified simple Lucas tree economy, where the representative agent is uncertain about his degree of future risk aversion, and where the productive asset cannot be traded in every period, while rights to output can. We show that a representative agent with a higher degree of uncertainty about his future risk aversion implies a higher liquidity premium (i.e., a lower price for the illiquid asset) and more price volatility.