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Twin picks: disentangling the determinants of risk-taking in household portfolios

Author

Listed:
  • Calvet, Laurent-Emmanuel

    (HEC Paris)

  • Sodini, Paolo
Abstract
Author's abstract. This paper investigates the determinants of financial risk-taking and documents new facts on the financial wealth elasticity of the risky share in a panel of swedish twins. We consider a uniquely comprehensive set of demographic and financial characteristics, and use yearly twin pair fixed effects to control for genes and shared background. Consistent with cross-sectional evidence (e.g. Carroll 2002) but in contrast to recent panel studies, we document that financial wealth is the dominant characteristic driving the asset allocation of individual investors. The average financial wealth elasticity of the risky share is positive and strongly significant among participants, which suggests that individual investors have decreasing relative risk aversion. Furthermore, the financial wealth elasticity of the risky share itself is heterogeneous across investors and varies strongly with characteristics; the elasticity decreases with financial wealth and human capital, and increases with habit, residential real estate, and household size. As a consequence, the elasticity of the aggregate demand for risky assets to exogenous wealth shocks is close to, but does not coincide with, the elasticity of a representative investor with constant relative risk aversion. We confirm the robustness of our results by running time-differenced instrumental variable regressions, and by controlling for zygosity, lifestyle, mental and physical health, the intensity of communication between twins, and measures of social interactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Calvet, Laurent-Emmanuel & Sodini, Paolo, 2011. "Twin picks: disentangling the determinants of risk-taking in household portfolios," HEC Research Papers Series 948, HEC Paris.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:0948
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    asset allocation; communication; genetics; habit formation; human capital; labor income; leverage; participation; risk-taking; social interactions; twin study;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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