Does household finance matter? Small financial errors with large social costs
File(s)BhamraUppal-DoesHouseholdFinanceMatter-2018-09-10.pdf (840.3 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Bhamra, HS
Uppal, Raman
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Households with familiarity biases tilt their portfolios toward a few risky assets. The resulting mean-variance loss from portfolio underdiversification is equivalent to only a modest reduction of about 1 percent per year in a household's portfolio return. However, once we consider also the effect of familiarity biases on the asset-allocation and intertemporal consumption-savings decisions, the welfare loss is multiplied by a factor of four. In general equilibrium, the suboptimal decisions of households distort also aggregate growth, amplifying further the overall social welfare loss. Our findings demonstrate that financial markets are not a mere sideshow to the real economy and that improving the financial decisions of households can lead to large benefits, not just for individual households, but also for society.
Date Issued
2019-03-01
Date Acceptance
2018-09-13
Citation
American Economic Review, 2019, 109 (3), pp.1116-1154
ISSN
0002-8282
Publisher
American Economic Association
Start Page
1116
End Page
1154
Journal / Book Title
American Economic Review
Volume
109
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2019 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
Subjects
Social Sciences
Economics
Business & Economics
PORTFOLIO CHOICE
INTERTEMPORAL SUBSTITUTION
LONG-RUN
MARKET PARTICIPATION
GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM
RISK-AVERSION
ASSET
CONSUMPTION
MODEL
STOCK
14 Economics
15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Economics
Publication Status
Published