Ambiguity Aversion and Household Portfolio Choice Puzzles: Empirical Evidence

We test the relation between ambiguity aversion and five household portfolio choice puzzles: nonparticipation in equities, low allocations to equity, home-bias, own-company stock ownership, and portfolio under-diversification. In a representative US household survey, we measure ambiguity preferences...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dimmock, Stephen Geoffrey, Kouwenberg, Roy, Mitchell, Olivia S., Peijnenburg, Kim
Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82775
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40311
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:We test the relation between ambiguity aversion and five household portfolio choice puzzles: nonparticipation in equities, low allocations to equity, home-bias, own-company stock ownership, and portfolio under-diversification. In a representative US household survey, we measure ambiguity preferences using custom-designed questions based on Ellsberg urns. As theory predicts, ambiguity aversion is negatively associated with stock market participation, the fraction of financial assets in stocks, and foreign stock ownership, but it is positively related to own-company stock ownership. Conditional on stock ownership, ambiguity aversion is related to portfolio under-diversification, and during the financial crisis, ambiguity-averse respondents were more likely to sell stocks.