IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v32y2011i4p564-580.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subjective measures of risk aversion, fixed costs, and portfolio choice

Author

Listed:
  • Kapteyn, Arie
  • Teppa, Federica

Abstract

The paper investigates risk preferences among different types of individuals. We use several different measures of risk preferences, including questions on choices between uncertain income streams suggested by Barsky, Juster, Kimball, and Shapiro (1997) and a number of ad hoc measures. As in (Barsky et al., 1997) and (Arrondel and Calvo-Pardo, 2002), we first analyze individual variation in the risk aversion measures and explain them by background characteristics (both "objective" characteristics and other subjective measures of risk preference). Next we incorporate the measured risk preferences into a household portfolio allocation model, which explains portfolio shares, while accounting for incomplete portfolios and fixed costs. Our results show that a measure based on factor analysis of answers to a number of simple risk preference questions has the most explanatory power. The Barsky et al. (1997) measure has less explanatory power than this "a-theoretical" measure, suggesting that sophisticated measures based on economic theory may exceed the financial capability of respondents. Fixed costs turn out to provide an economically and statistically highly significant explanation for incomplete portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Kapteyn, Arie & Teppa, Federica, 2011. "Subjective measures of risk aversion, fixed costs, and portfolio choice," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 564-580, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:4:p:564-580
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487011000602
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2000. "Towards an Explanation of Household Portfolio Choice Heterogeneity: Nonfinancial Income and Participation Cost Structures," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1102, Econometric Society.
    2. Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, 2004. "Save More Tomorrow (TM): Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 164-187, February.
    3. Amir A. Amadi & Paul R. Bergin, 2017. "Understanding International Portfolio Diversification and Turnover Rates," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Macroeconomic Interdependence, chapter 11, pages 317-339, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. R. Gaston Gelos & Shang‐Jin Wei, 2005. "Transparency and International Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2987-3020, December.
    5. Hyuk Choe & Bong-Chan Kho & René M. Stulz, 2005. "Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 795-829.
    6. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    7. Dahlquist, Magnus & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, René M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Corporate Governance and the Home Bias," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 87-110, March.
    8. van Rooij, Maarten C.J. & Kool, Clemens J.M. & Prast, Henriette M., 2007. "Risk-return preferences in the pension domain: Are people able to choose?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3-4), pages 701-722, April.
    9. Jermann, Urban J., 2002. "International portfolio diversification and endogenous labor supply choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 507-522, March.
    10. Mao, James C T, 1970. "Essentials of Portfolio Diversification Strategy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(5), pages 1109-1121, December.
    11. Tesar, Linda L. & Werner, Ingrid M., 1995. "Home bias and high turnover," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 467-492, August.
    12. Nitin R. Patel & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 1982. "A Simple Algorithm for Optimal Portfolio Selection with Fixed Transaction Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 303-314, March.
    13. Glassman, Debra A. & Riddick, Leigh A., 2001. "What causes home asset bias and how should it be measured?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 35-54, March.
    14. Matthew Rabin, 1998. "Psychology and Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 11-46, March.
    15. Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, 2001. "Naive Diversification Strategies in Defined Contribution Saving Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 79-98, March.
    16. Stefano Iezzi, 2008. "Investors' risk attitude and risky behavior: a Bayesian approach with imperfect information," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 692, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Miguel Lobo & Maryam Fazel & Stephen Boyd, 2007. "Portfolio optimization with linear and fixed transaction costs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 341-365, July.
    18. René M. Stulz, 2007. "The Limits of Financial Globalization," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 19(1), pages 8-15, January.
    19. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    20. Ahearne, Alan G. & Griever, William L. & Warnock, Francis E., 2004. "Information costs and home bias: an analysis of US holdings of foreign equities," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 313-336, March.
    21. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2008. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Diversification," EIEF Working Papers Series 0812, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Oct 2008.
    22. French, Kenneth R & Poterba, James M, 1991. "Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 222-226, May.
    23. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    24. Linda L. Tesar & Ingrid M. Werner, 1994. "International Equity Transactions and U.S. Portfolio Choice," NBER Chapters, in: The Internationalization of Equity Markets, pages 185-227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 2000. "Behavioral Portfolio Theory," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 127-151, June.
    26. Arthur van Soest, 1995. "Structural Models of Family Labor Supply: A Discrete Choice Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(1), pages 63-88.
    27. Cooper, Ian & Kaplanis, Evi, 1994. "Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 45-60.
    28. Fidora, Michael & Fratzscher, Marcel & Thimann, Christian, 2007. "Home bias in global bond and equity markets: The role of real exchange rate volatility," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 631-655, June.
    29. Baele, Lieven & Pungulescu, Crina & Ter Horst, Jenke, 2007. "Model uncertainty, financial market integration and the home bias puzzle," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 606-630, June.
    30. Tomas Dvorak, 2001. "Do Domestic Investors Have an Information Advantage? Evidence from Indonesia," Center for Development Economics 168, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    31. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris, 2013. "Investing at home and abroad: Different costs, different people?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2069-2086.
    32. B. Blog & G. van der Hoek & A. H. G. Rinnooy Kan & G. T. Timmer, 1983. "The Optimal Selection of Small Portfolios," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(7), pages 792-798, July.
    33. John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey & Hai Huang, 2009. "Investor Competence, Trading Frequency, and Home Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1094-1106, July.
    34. Harrison Hong & Jeffrey D. Kubik & Jeremy C. Stein, 2004. "Social Interaction and Stock-Market Participation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 137-163, February.
    35. Christian Gollier, 2004. "The Economics of Risk and Time," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262572249, December.
    36. French, Kenneth R. & Poterba, James M., 1990. "Japanese and U.S. cross-border common stock investments," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 476-493, December.
    37. Norman Strong & Xinzhong Xu, 2003. "Understanding the Equity Home Bias: Evidence from Survey Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 307-312, May.
    38. Michael Haliassos & Christis Hassapis, 2002. "Equity culture and household behavior," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 54(4), pages 719-745, October.
    39. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    40. Jacob, Nancy L, 1974. "A Limited-Diversification Portfolio Selection Model for the Small Investor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(3), pages 847-856, June.
    41. Brennan, M. J., 1975. "The Optimal Number of Securities in a Risky Asset Portfolio When There Are Fixed Costs of Transacting: Theory and Some Empirical Results," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 483-496, September.
    42. Levy, Haim, 1978. "Equilibrium in an Imperfect Market: A Constraint on the Number of Securities in the Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(4), pages 643-658, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kapteyn, Arie & Teppa, Federica, 2011. "Subjective measures of risk aversion, fixed costs, and portfolio choice," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 564-580, August.
    2. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris, 2013. "Investing at home and abroad: Different costs, different people?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2069-2086.
    3. Lee, Junyong & Lee, Kyounghun & Oh, Frederick Dongchuhl, 2023. "International portfolio diversification and the home bias puzzle," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Nicolas Coeurdacier & Hélène Rey, 2013. "Home Bias in Open Economy Financial Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 63-115, March.
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1shj1p7td8e0r5c9fcsnk8a91 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Bose, Udichibarna & MacDonald, Ronald & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2015. "Education and the local equity bias around the world," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 65-88.
    8. Giofré, Maela, 2013. "International diversification: Households versus institutional investors," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 145-176.
    9. Eduard Gaar & David Scherer & Dirk Schiereck, 2022. "The home bias and the local bias: A survey," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 21-57, February.
    10. Kapteyn, A. & Teppa, F., 2002. "Subjective Measures of Risk Aversion and Portfolio Choice," Discussion Paper 2002-11, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    11. Giofré, Maela, 2017. "Financial education, investor protection and international portfolio diversification," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 111-139.
    12. Bong‐Chan Kho & René M. Stulz & Francis E. Warnock, 2009. "Financial Globalization, Governance, and the Evolution of the Home Bias," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 597-635, May.
    13. Mishra, Anil V., 2015. "Measures of equity home bias puzzle," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 293-312.
    14. Anil Mishra, 2011. "Australia’s equity home bias and real exchange rate volatility," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 223-244, August.
    15. Bose, Udichibarna & MacDonald, Ronald & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2015. "Education and the local equity bias around the world," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-76, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Morse, Adair & Shive, Sophie, 2011. "Patriotism in your portfolio," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 411-440, May.
    17. Udichibarna Bose & Ronald MacDonald & Serafeim Tsoukas, 2014. "The role of education in equity portfolios during the recent financial crisis," Working Papers 2014_17, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    18. Nicolas Coeurdacier & Hélène Rey, 2010. "Home bias in open economy financial macroeconomics," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01069440, HAL.
    19. Daly, Kevin & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2013. "The determinants of home bias puzzle in equity portfolio investment in Australia," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-42.
    20. Anil V. Mishra, 2017. "Foreign bias in Australia's international equity holdings," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 41-54, April.
    21. Bose, Udichibarna & MacDonald, Ronald & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2014. "The role of education in equity portfolios during the recent financial crisis," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-26, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    22. Paul Hallwood & Ronald MacDonald, 2014. "Picking The Right Budget Constraint For Scotland," Working Papers 2014_18, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:4:p:564-580. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.