In life-cycle portfolio choice models it is standard to assume that all agents invest in a diversified stock market index. In contrast recent empirical evidence, summarized in Campbell [2006. Household finance. Journal of Finance 61, 1553-1604] suggests that households' financial portfolios are under-diversified and that there is substantial heterogeneity in diversification. In the present paper I examine the effects of heterogeneous under-diversification in a life-cycle portfolio choice model with uninsurable uncertain earnings and fixed per-period participation costs. The analysis of the model shows that realistically calibrated under-diversification gives an important contribution to the explanation of two key facts of households' portfolio allocation: the moderate stock market participation rate and the moderate stock share for participants.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 33 (2009) Issue (Month): 9 (September) Pages: 1682-1698 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF