This dissertation consists of three chapters on development economics. The first two chapters are in the area of international macroeconomics. The third chapter is in an area that is the intersection of macroeconomics and population economics. The first chapter studies currency substitution in an environment where agents' inflation tax evasive demand for foreign money is balanced by the concern for the possibility that the government may impose economy-wide capital controls under which foreign currency transactions are costly. We contrast implications of constant beliefs regarding capital controls with those obtained under endogenous beliefs. With endogenous beliefs, agents expect a greater likelihood of capital controls as economy-wide currency substitution rises. Our results show a persistent demand for foreign money under endogenous beliefs despite efforts by the government to reduce inflation. The second chapter is a theoretical study of currency substitution in an overlapping-generations economy. We focus on the role of beliefs in determining the relative demands for domestic and foreign money. Domestic money suffers from a lack of confidence leading agents to demand foreign money as an alternate store-of-value. We study equilibria in which the level of confidence in domestic money evolves as a function of expected future aggregate domestic money demand: agents increase their demand for domestic money only if aggregate economy-wide real domestic money demand is expected to rise. The third chapter is a study of intertemporal substitution and fertility dynamics. The demographic experience of Iran after the revolution poses an interesting puzzle. A brief increase in period fertility after the 1979 revolution interrupted a trend of decline that had started in the 1950s. The rise in fertility, however, appears to have lasted only a few years: in the late 1980s fertility decline resumed its course at an even faster pace. We present evidence that suggests that the changes in Iranian fertility since the revolution were in part a birth timing phenomenon. The revolution may well have been a transient economic shock which temporarily depressed the relative "price" of children and caused adjustment in fertility patterns which, at least in an ex post sense, is suggestive of intertemporal substitution. / Ph. D.

Cette thèse étudie le choix de portefeuille et l'évaluation d'actifs avec des préférences qui vont au-Delà des préférences d'espérance d'utilité et de moyenne-Variance standard. La première partie de cette thèse porte sur un modèle de décision dans lequel le décideur forme des croyances endogènes compte tenu de son utilité d'anticipation et de sa déception à posteriori. Les implications du modèle en termes de choix de portefeuille et d'évaluation d'actifs sont dérivées et comparées aux implications du modèle d'espérance d'utilité standard. La deuxième partie de cette thèse porte sur des investisseurs qui dérivent l'utilité des trois premiers moments du rendement de leur portefeuille. Nous dérivons et testons les conditions sous lesquelles des actifs supplémentaires peuvent améliorer l'univers d'investissement des investisseurs avec des préférences moyenne-variance-skewness. Les implications de ces préférences pour les rendements d'actifs à l'équilibre sont ensuite analysées et testées avec des rendements boursiers. / This thesis studies portfolio choice and asset pricing with preferences which go beyond the standard expected utility and mean-Variance preferences. The first part of this thesis analyses a decision model in which the decision maker forms endogenous beliefs given his anticipation utility and his ex-Post disappointment. Portfolio choice and asset pricing implications of the model are derived and compared to the implications of the standard expected utility framework. The second part of this thesis analyses investors choice when preferences are derived from the first three moments of portfolio returns. We derive and test the conditions under which additional assets can improve the investment opportunity set of investors with mean-Variance-Skewness preferences. The implications of these preferences for the equilibrium cross-Section of asset returns are then analyzed and tested with stock returns.