Aging and Household Stockholdings: Evidence from Japanese Household Survey Data

Using Japanese household survey data from 2007 to 2010, we examine how household age, income, financial assets, and education affect the tendency to participate in the stock market. Our analysis suggests that the probability of stock market participation correlates weakly with age, holding constant other household characteristics, including the preference toward online financial transactions. The share of stocks in total household financial assets correlates positively with age, holding constant the other variables listed above. Our results suggest that older households tend to have more stocks than younger households, but this is mainly because older households have more financial assets on average than younger households: the effects of age per se are statistically significant but small in size.