To own or not to own? Household portfolios, demographics and institutions in a cross-national perspective

Eva Sierminska and Karina Doorley

Journal of Income Distribution, 2018, vol. 26, issue 1, 1-43

Abstract: Using harmonized wealth data and a decomposition approach novel to this literature, we identify differences in determinants and in income profiles of asset and debt portfolios in European and North American countries. We find that family structure and income play a significant role in explaining cross-country differences in asset participation for the younger cohort. Large unexplained differences in non-financial asset participation remain for younger households and for debt participation among older households. In more financially developed and economically open countries, households are less likely to own housing, but more likely to be in debt. Our findings could have important implications for policy setting, suggesting a scope for the promotion of asset holdings among younger households and debt holdings to facilitate consumption smoothing among older households.

Keywords: wealth portfolios; decomposition; institutions; demographics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G21 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.glendon.yorku.ca/repec/uploads/repec/jid/articles/40356.pdf (application/pdf)
Some fulltext downloads are only available to subscribers. See JID website for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: To Own or Not to Own?: Household Portfolios, Demographics and Institutions in a Cross-National Perspective (2013)
Working Paper: To Own or Not to Own? Household Portfolios, Demographics and Institutions in a Cross-National Perspective (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jid:journl:y:2018:v:26:i:1:p:1-43

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Income Distribution from Ad libros publications inc. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Timm Boenke ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).