The past decade has been a time of drastic developments, both in financial markets and in related academic research. Among the most striking developments are the expanded stockholder base, the increased popularity of mutual funds among households, and the growing importance of private pension...

Data from the Italian Survey of Households Income and Wealth (SHIW) are used to study portfolio allocations change in response to fluctuations in wealth. In particular I test for the prediction of models with habit formation that changes in liquid wealth will affect households' risk aversion and...