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Equity Fund Ownership and the Cross-Regional Diversification of Household Risk

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  • Becker, Sascha
  • Hoffmann, Mathias

Abstract

We explore the link between portfolio home bias and consumption risk sharing among Italian regions using aggregated household level information on consumption, income and portfolio holdings. We propose to use data on equity fund ownership to proxy for regional home bias: equity funds are typically diversified at the national or international level and will therefore provide interregional diversifiation. In assessing the impact of equity fund ownership on interregional risk sharing we distinguish between two dimensions: variation in the share of equity funds in fund-holder's wealth (the intensive margin) and variation in the fraction of households that hold funds (the extensive margin). We find that equity fund ownership is an important determinant of interregional risk sharing. First, diversification incentives qualitatively line up with actually observed portfolio choices: fund holders in regions where households are particularly exposed to region-specific labor income risk hold a larger fraction of their wealth in (out-of-region) funds. Secondly, for a region as a whole, risk sharing increases in both the intensive and the extensive margins of diversification and the two margins reinforce each other. The marginal effect of wider equity fund participation seems particularly strong, suggesting that policies aimed at increasing equity market participation could help foster better interregional risk sharing.

Suggested Citation

  • Becker, Sascha & Hoffmann, Mathias, 2008. "Equity Fund Ownership and the Cross-Regional Diversification of Household Risk," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2008-25, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:stl:stledp:2008-25
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/561
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    Cited by:

    1. Ho, Chun-Yu & Ho, Wai-Yip Alex & Li, Dan, 2015. "Intranational risk sharing and its determinants," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 89-113.
    2. Anderson, Christopher W. & Fedenia, Mark & Hirschey, Mark & Skiba, Hilla, 2011. "Cultural influences on home bias and international diversification by institutional investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 916-934, April.
    3. Geert Bekaert & Kenton Hoyem & Wei-Yin Hu & Enrichetta Ravina, 2015. "Who is Internationally Diversified? Evidence from 296 401(k)," NBER Working Papers 21236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Christian Friedrich, 2015. "Does Financial Integration Increase Welfare? Evidence from International Household-Level Data," Staff Working Papers 15-4, Bank of Canada.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    consumption risk sharing; regional home bias; Survey of Household Income and Wealth; labor income risk; portfolio choice; stock market partici pation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
    • F37 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Finance Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

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