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Rational Inattention, Long-Run Consumption Risk, And Portfolio Choice, Yulei Luo

Yulei Luo

This paper explores how the introduction of rational inattention (RI) -- that agents process information subject to fi…nite channel capacity -- affects optimal consumption and investment decisions in an otherwise standard intertemporal model of portfolio choice. We …first explicitly derive optimal consumption and portfolio rules under RI and then show that introducing RI reduces the optimal share of savings invested in the risky asset because inattentive investors face greater long-run consumption risk. We also show that the investment horizon matters for portfolio allocation in the presence of RI, even if investment opportunities are constant and the utility function of investors …