We use cross-country microdata to analyse the risk taking of households in Europe and the US. Concerning the extensive … inside Europe we document substantial differences. Furthermore, average risk aversion is strongly correlated with the share … explainable by household characteristics as well as differences in risk aversion and a remainder. We employ the unexplained part …

Households face earnings risk which is non-normal and varies by age and over the income distribution. We show that … assets. Because households are subject to more background risk than previously considered, the estimated model implies a … substantially lower coefficient of risk aversion. We also find renewed support for rule-of-thumb investment strategies under the …