IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjfi/v20y2014i5p446-462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk aversion vs. individualism: what drives risk taking in household finance?

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfgang Breuer
  • Michael Riesener
  • Astrid Juliane Salzmann

Abstract

Despite a considerable premium on equity with respect to risk-free assets, many households do not own stocks. We ask why the prevalence of stockholding is so limited. We focus on individuals' attitudes toward risk and identify relevant factors that affect the willingness to take financial risks. Our empirical evidence contradicts standard portfolio theory, as it does not indicate a significant relationship between risk aversion and financial risk taking. However, our analysis supports the behavioral view that psychological factors rooted in national culture affect portfolio choice. Individualism, which is linked to overconfidence and overoptimism, has a significantly positive effect on financial risk taking. In microdata from Germany and Singapore, as well as in cross-country data, we find evidence consistent with low levels of individualism being an important factor in explaining the limited participation puzzle.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfgang Breuer & Michael Riesener & Astrid Juliane Salzmann, 2014. "Risk aversion vs. individualism: what drives risk taking in household finance?," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 446-462, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:20:y:2014:i:5:p:446-462
    DOI: 10.1080/1351847X.2012.714792
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1351847X.2012.714792
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1351847X.2012.714792?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terrance Odean., 1996. "Volume, Volatility, Price and Profit When All Trader Are Above Average," Research Program in Finance Working Papers RPF-266, University of California at Berkeley.
    2. Oleg Badunenko & Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2009. "Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men?," Working Paper / FINESS 6.1, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    4. Shum, Pauline & Faig, Miquel, 2006. "What explains household stock holdings?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 2579-2597, September.
    5. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    6. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, And Behavioral Consequences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 522-550, June.
    7. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli, 2003. "Household stockholding in Europe: where do we stand and where do we go? [‘Limited market participation and volatility of assets prices’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 123-170.
    8. Gary Charness & Uri Gneezy, 2010. "Portfolio Choice And Risk Attitudes: An Experiment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 133-146, January.
    9. Thaler, Richard, 1981. "Some empirical evidence on dynamic inconsistency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 201-207.
    10. Dimitris Georgarakos & Giacomo Pasini, 2011. "Trust, Sociability, and Stock Market Participation," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(4), pages 693-725.
    11. Oliver E. Williamson, 2000. "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 595-613, September.
    12. Christelis, Dimitris & Jappelli, Tullio & Padula, Mario, 2010. "Cognitive abilities and portfolio choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 18-38, January.
    13. Yannis Bilias & Dimitris Georgarakos & Michael Haliassos, 2010. "Portfolio Inertia and Stock Market Fluctuations," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 715-742, June.
    14. Breuer, Wolfgang & Perst, Achim, 2007. "Retail banking and behavioral financial engineering: The case of structured products," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 827-844, March.
    15. Barnea, Amir & Cronqvist, Henrik & Siegel, Stephan, 2010. "Nature or nurture: What determines investor behavior?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 583-604, December.
    16. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    17. Andy C.W. Chui & Sheridan Titman & K.C. John Wei, 2010. "Individualism and Momentum around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 361-392, February.
    18. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    19. Bradley L Kirkman & Kevin B Lowe & Cristina B Gibson, 2006. "A quarter century of Culture's Consequences: a review of empirical research incorporating Hofstede's cultural values framework," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(3), pages 285-320, May.
    20. Geert Hofstede, 1983. "The Cultural Relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 14(2), pages 75-89, June.
    21. Eric Van den Steen, 2004. "Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1141-1151, September.
    22. Puri, Manju & Robinson, David T., 2007. "Optimism and economic choice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 71-99, October.
    23. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    24. Xue-Zhong He & Lei Shi, 2010. "Differences in Opinion and Risk Premium," Research Paper Series 271, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    25. Fellner, Gerlinde & Maciejovsky, Boris, 2007. "Risk attitude and market behavior: Evidence from experimental asset markets," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 338-350, June.
    26. Dimmock, Stephen G. & Kouwenberg, Roy, 2010. "Loss-aversion and household portfolio choice," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 441-459, June.
    27. Haliassos, Michael & Bertaut, Carol C, 1995. "Why Do So Few Hold Stocks?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(432), pages 1110-1129, September.
    28. Donkers, Bas & van Soest, Arthur, 1999. "Subjective measures of household preferences and financial decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 613-642, December.
    29. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:137-163 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Markus Glaser & Martin Weber, 2007. "Overconfidence and trading volume," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, Springer;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 32(1), pages 1-36, June.
    31. repec:diw:diwfin:diwfin06010 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. K Sivakumar & Cheryl Nakata, 2001. "The Stampede Toward Hofstede's Framework: Avoiding the Sample Design Pit in Cross-Cultural Research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 32(3), pages 555-574, September.
    33. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli (ed.), 2003. "Stockholding in Europe," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50267-3, March.
    34. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2009. "Sensation Seeking, Overconfidence, and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 549-578, April.
    35. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    36. Giordani, Paolo & Soderlind, Paul, 2006. "Is there evidence of pessimism and doubt in subjective distributions? Implications for the equity premium puzzle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1027-1043, June.
    37. Keller, Carmen & Siegrist, Michael, 2006. "Investing in stocks: The influence of financial risk attitude and values-related money and stock market attitudes," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 285-303, April.
    38. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:1887-1934 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Beck , Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2009. "Financial institutions and markets across countries and over time - data and analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4943, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    2. Kannyiri Thadious Banyen & Joseph Kofi Nkuah, 2015. "Limited Stock Market Participation in Ghana: A Behavioral Explanation," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 3(6), pages 286-305, June.
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Haliassos, Michael, 2011. "Stockholding: Participation, location, and spillovers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1918-1930, August.
    5. Ya-Fang Cheng & Eugene Burgos Mutuc & Fu-Sheng Tsai & Kun-Hwa Lu & Chien-Ho Lin, 2018. "Social Capital and Stock Market Participation via Technologies: The Role of Households’ Risk Attitude and Cognitive Ability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Luik, Marc-André & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2016. "Immigrant-native differences in stockholding – The role of cognitive and non-cognitive skills," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 103-119.
    7. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Spaenjers, C., 2009. "Where Angels Fear to Trade : The Role of Religion in Household Finance," Other publications TiSEM 1805b57f-17bc-414f-b553-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Oleg Badunenko & Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2009. "Risk Attitudes and Investment Decisions across European Countries: Are Women More Conservative Investors than Men?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 224, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    9. Hvide, Hans K. & Panos, Georgios A., 2014. "Risk tolerance and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 200-223.
    10. Goudarzi, Fatemeh (Sahar) & Olaru, Doina & Bergey, Paul, 2023. "Beyond risk attitude: Unpacking behavioral drivers of supply chain contracts," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    11. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Mark N. Harris & Karl Taylor, 2024. "Modelling the composition of household portfolios: A latent class approach," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 243-275, February.
    12. Hsiao, Yu-Jen & Tsai, Wei-Che, 2018. "Financial literacy and participation in the derivatives markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 15-29.
    13. Michael Berlemann & Marc-André Luik, 2014. "Institutional Reform and Depositors' Portfolio Choice - Evidence from Censored Quantile Regressions," CESifo Working Paper Series 4782, CESifo.
    14. Angelini, Viola & Cavapozzi, Danilo, 2017. "Dispositional optimism and stock investments," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 113-128.
    15. Lee, Boram & Veld-Merkoulova, Yulia, 2016. "Myopic loss aversion and stock investments: An empirical study of private investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 235-246.
    16. repec:diw:diwfin:diwfin06010 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Vaarmets, Tarvo & Liivamägi, Kristjan & Talpsepp, Tõnn, 2019. "From academic abilities to occupation: What drives stock market participation?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 83-100.
    18. Lee, Boram & Rosenthal, Leonard & Veld, Chris & Veld-Merkoulova, Yulia, 2015. "Stock market expectations and risk aversion of individual investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 122-131.
    19. Boubakri, Narjess & Saffar, Walid, 2016. "Culture and externally financed firm growth," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 502-520.
    20. Kaustia, Markku & Conlin, Andrew & Luotonen, Niilo, 2023. "What drives stock market participation? The role of institutional, traditional, and behavioral factors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    21. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Saffar, Walid, 2017. "The constraints on full privatization: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 392-407.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:20:y:2014:i:5:p:446-462. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJF20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.