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Trends in Household Portfolio Composition

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Abstract

We use data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to explore how household asset portfolios in the United States have evolved from 1989 to 2016. Throughout this period, two key assets?housing and financial market assets?have driven the aggregate household balance sheet evolution. However, aggregates mask great heterogeneity in balance sheet composition across the wealth distribution, and most families hold a relatively small share of assets in financial markets and larger shares in housing and other nonfinancial assets. We also describe the typical life cycle asset accumulation processes among low, middle, and high-income families which?though varying dramatically by level?are quite similar. Finally, we use household balance sheets to describe how financial vulnerability has changed over time.

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  • Jesse Bricker & Kevin B. Moore & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2019. "Trends in Household Portfolio Composition," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-069, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2019-69
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2019.069
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    Cited by:

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    2. Alice Henriques Volz & Lindsay Jacobs & Elizabeth Llanes & Kevin B. Moore & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2021. "Wealth Concentration in the United States Using an Expanded Measure of Net Worth," Working Papers 21-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Antoine Ferey & Benjamin Lockwood & Dmitry Taubinsky, 2021. "Sufficient Statistics for Nonlinear Tax Systems with General Across-Income Heterogeneity," NBER Working Papers 29582, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Yossi Yakhin & Inon Gamrasni, 2021. "The Housing Market in Israel: Long-Run Equilibrium and Short-Run Dynamics," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2021.08, Bank of Israel.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distribution of wealth; Household finance; Household wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

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