Early Health, Risk Aversion and Stock Market Participation

Petri Böckerman (), Andrew Conlin () and Rauli Svento ()
Additional contact information
Andrew Conlin: Oulu Business School
Rauli Svento: Oulu Business School

No 12341, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: To examine the relationship between early health status and financial decisions in adulthood, we link information on birth weight in 1966 from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort to data from the Finnish Central Securities Depository over the period of 1995-2010. We find that persons predisposed to poor health status in early childhood (indicated by low birth weight) avoid participating in the stock market in adulthood. The link between birth weight and stock market participation is partially explained by the fact that poor early health status leads to risk aversion. Early health status is not significantly related to the portfolio's value-growth tilt.

Keywords: stock market participation; birth weight; health status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 2021, 32, 100568

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Journal Article: Early health, risk aversion and stock market participation (2021)
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