The paper discusses a methodology for calculating the distribution of gains and losses from a policy change using data for a large sample of households. Estimates are based on the equivalent income function, which is money metric utility defined over observable variables. This enables...

Empirical tests of the life cycle model have focused on its implications for the level of a household's total net worth and paid little attention to changes in portfolio composition over the life cycle. In this paper, we examine a new survey of the asset holdings of 6,010 U.S households and show...

In this paper, we examine a new survey of 6,010 U.S. households and estimate a model for the allocation of total net worth among different assets. The paper has three main aims. The first is to investigate the extent to which a conventional portfolio choice model can explain the differences in...

A substantial literature exists on the impact of pension schemes, both public and private, on the level of household saving. Yet there is no clear consensus on the impact of pensions on private saving. In this paper we show how beliefs about this displacement effect are modified by prior beliefs...

Empirical studies of the life cycle savings model have tended to rej ect the hypothesis of a quot;hump-shapedquot; pattern for the wealth-age profile. In this paper we show, using new data on net worth for 12,734 families, that there is evidence that wealth declines after retirement provided...

This paper explores the portfolio behavior of investors differing with respect to both tax rates and risk-aversion, emphasizing the role of constraints on individual and firm behavior in ensuring the existence of and characterizing portfolio equilibrium. Under certain conditions on the...

There has been very little study of the consequences of pension wealth for the composition of household portfolios. Using individual data for 10,118 Canadian households we estimate the portfolio effect of pension wealth. Because most households do not own all of the assets which we are able to...

Over the past couple of decades, and especially since the financial crisis in 2008-09, real interest rates have collapsed. For much of the past two years they have been negative, but they have been trending down for some while. But how far have real rates fallen? This note computes a measure of...