We investigate the determinants of a household's decision on whether to invest in risky financial assets. Financial theory suggests that with increasing labor income risk, the reluctance of households to hold stocks increases. We propose to measure income risk as the observed variation of...

This paper investigates the form and magnitude of a variety of state dependence effects for prime-aged men in Germany. I differentiate between three labor market states: employment, unemployment, and out of labor force. Results indicate that all forms of state dependence are present in the data,...

What determines the risk structure of financial portfolios of German households? In this paper we estimate the determinants of the share of financial wealth invested in three broad risk classes. We employ a new econometric approach - the so called fractional multinomial logit model - which...