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The Size and Composition of Wealth Holdings in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands

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  • Arie Kapteyn
  • Constantijn Panis

Abstract

This paper analyzes retirement saving and portfolio choice in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands. While these countries enjoy roughly the same standard of living, they vary widely in their institutional organization of retirement income provisions. Building on extensions of the life cycle model, we derive hypotheses on the implications of institutional differences for wealth accumulation and portfolio composition. Examples of implications are that the ratio of net worth and gross wealth should be highest in Italy, that Dutch households should hold the lowest wealth levels at retirement and that the ownership of risky assets should be highest in the U.S. We investigate these and other hypotheses at both the macro and micro level and find that the data are generally consistent with the hypotheses.

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  • Arie Kapteyn & Constantijn Panis, 2003. "The Size and Composition of Wealth Holdings in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands," NBER Working Papers 10182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10182
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    1. Graziella Bertocchi, 2011. "The Vanishing Bequest Tax: The Comparative Evolution Of Bequest Taxation In Historical Perspective," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 107-131, March.
    2. Aylit T. Romm, 2012. "Retirement Date Effects on Pre-Retirement Wealth Accumulation: An Analysis of US Households," Working Papers 266, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    3. Kirsanova, Tatiana & Sefton, James, 2007. "A comparison of national saving rates in the UK, US and Italy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1998-2028, November.
    4. Debarsy, Nicolas & Gnabo, Jean-Yves & Kerkour, Malik, 2017. "Sovereign wealth funds’ cross-border investments: Assessing the role of country-level drivers and spatial competition," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 68-87.
    5. Jonathan Crook & Stefan Hochguertel, 2007. "US and European Household Debt and Credit Constraints," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-087/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Egbert Jongen, 2009. "An analysis of individual accounts for the unemployment risk in the Netherlands," CPB Document 186, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Raffaele Miniaci & Sergio Pastorello, 2010. "Mean-variance econometric analysis of household portfolios," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 481-504.
    8. Egbert Jongen, 2009. "An analysis of individual accounts for the unemployment risk in the Netherlands," CPB Document 186.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Raquel Fonseca & Pierre-Carl Michaud & Thepthida Sopraseuth, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Liquidity Constraints and Start-up Costs," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 173, McMaster University.
    10. Stefan Groot & Henri de Groot, 2011. "Wage inequality in the Netherlands: Evidence, trends and explanations," CPB Discussion Paper 186.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Nicolas Debarsy & Jean-Yves Gnabo & Malik Kerkour, 2016. "Sovereign Wealth Funds’ cross-border investments: assessing the role of country-level drivers and spatial competition," Working Papers hal-01251243, HAL.
    12. Timothy Smeeding & Eva Sierminska & Andrea Brandolini, 2006. "Cross National Comparison of Income and Wealth Status in Retirement: First Results from the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS)," LWS Working papers 2, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Aylit Romm, 2015. "The Effect of Retirement Date Expectations on Pre-retirement Wealth Accumulation: The Role of Gender and Bargaining Power in Married US Households," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 593-605, December.
    14. Casper van Ewijk & Erik Canton & Paul Tang, 2004. "Ageing and international capital flows," CPB Document 43.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Fonseca, Raquel & Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Wealth, Liquidity Constraints and Start-up Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 2874, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    16. Arie Kapteyn & Constantijn Panis, 2003. "The Size and Composition of Wealth Holdings in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands," NBER Working Papers 10182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Fonseca, Raquel & Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Wealth, Liquidity Constraints and Start-up Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 2874, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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