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Money Illusion and Household Finance

Author

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  • Thomas A. Stephens

    (Department of Economics, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Jean-Robert Tyran

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

We elicit money illusion and match it with financial and sociodemographic data from official registers on a quasi-representative sample of the Danish population. We find that people who are more prone to money illusion hold more of their gross wealth in nominal assets, including bank deposits and bonds, and less in real assets, including real estate and stocks. This bias is robust to controls for education, income, cognitive ability and other relevant characteristics. We further find that money illusion is a costly bias: 10-year portfolio returns are about 10 percentage points lower for individuals with high money illusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Stephens & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2016. "Money Illusion and Household Finance," Discussion Papers 16-14, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1614
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Grundmann, Susanna & Giamattei, Marcus & Lambsdorff, Johann Graf, 2019. "Intentions rather than money illusion – Why nominal changes induce real effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 166-178.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    money illusion; loss aversion; household finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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