Do Wealth Fluctuations Generate Time-varying Risk Aversion? Micro-Evidence on Individuals' Asset Allocation
We use data from the PSID to investigate how households' portfolio allocations change in response to wealth fluctuations. Persistent habits, consumption commitments, and subsistence levels can generate time-varying risk aversion with the consequence that when the level of liquid wealth changes, the proportion a household invests in risky assets should also change in the same direction. In contrast, our analysis shows that the share of liquid assets that households invest in risky assets is not affected by wealth changes. Instead, one of the major drivers of households' portfolio allocation seems to be inertia: households rebalance only very slowly following inflows and outflows or capital gains and losses.
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Copy CitationMarkus K. Brunnermeier and Stefan Nagel, "Do Wealth Fluctuations Generate Time-varying Risk Aversion? Micro-Evidence on Individuals' Asset Allocation," NBER Working Paper 12809 (2006), https://doi.org/10.3386/w12809.Download Citation
Published Versions
Brunnermeier, Markus K. and Stefan Nagel. "Do Wealth Fluctuations Generate Time-Varying Risk Aversion? Micro-evidence on Individuals." American Economic Review 98, 3 (2008): 713-736.
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