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Forced retirement risk and portfolio choice

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  • Chen, Guodong
  • Lee, Minjoon
  • Nam, Tong-yob

Abstract

Current literature on the effect of labor income on portfolio choice overlooks that workers face a risk of being forced to retire before their planned retirement age. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, this paper finds that the forced retirement risk is both significant and highly correlated with stock market fluctuations. Using a life-cycle portfolio choice model, this paper shows that forced retirement risk makes labor income near retirement stock-like. Therefore, contrary to conventional wisdom, those who are still working but near retirement should have a lower share of risky assets in their financial portfolios than retirees do.

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  • Chen, Guodong & Lee, Minjoon & Nam, Tong-yob, 2020. "Forced retirement risk and portfolio choice," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 293-315.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:58:y:2020:i:c:p:293-315
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jempfin.2020.06.007
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    Cited by:

    1. Valentinas Rudys, 2023. "How does retirement affect optimal life cycle portfolio allocation between stocks and bonds?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 212-224, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Forced retirement; Human capital; Portfolio choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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