Where do French people invest their savings?

Émilie Candus, Christian Pfister and Franck Sedillot ()

Quarterly selection of articles - Bulletin de la Banque de France, 2017, issue 48, 5-22

Abstract: France has savings in abundance, but little of it goes towards long-term business financing – particularly equity financing. Real estate assets form a dominant presence in household wealth, with financial assets essentially made up of life insurance contracts and bank deposits. Fewer than 12% of households owned equities directly in 2015, down from 16.3% in 2004. This situation cannot be put down to irrational household behaviour. Rather, the explanations lie with inadequate albeit improving returns on equity investments, particularly in comparison with the US stock market, the small size of the French market, domestic levels of financial literacy and advice, which could be raised, and regulatory and tax incentives, which do little to support risk taking.

Keywords: households; financial; assets; savings; national; accounts; intermediation; securities ownership; portfolio; selection; equities; debt; securities; CIS; life insurance; pension funds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D91 E21 G11 G12 G20 H21 H24 H31 I20 N22 N24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfr:quarte:2017:48:01

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