Household portfolio choices, health status and health care systems: A cross-country analysis based on SHARE

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• 作者：Vincenzo Atella^a ; ^{atella@uniroma2.it} ; Marianna Brunetti^b ; ^{marianna.brunetti@uniroma2.it} ; Nicole Maestas^c ; ^{maestas@rand.org}
• 关键词：D14 ; I13 ; G11
• 刊名：Journal of Banking and Finance
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：30_03784266
• 类别：eco
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 卷：36
• 期：5
• 页码：1320-1335
• 文件大小：287 K

摘要

Health risk is increasingly viewed as an important form of background risk that affects household portfolio decisions. However, its role might be mediated by the presence of a protective full-coverage national health service that could reduce households鈥?probability of incurring current and future out-of-pocket medical expenditures. We use SHARE data to study the influence of current health status and future health risk on the decision to hold risky assets, across ten European countries with different health systems, each offering a different degree of protection against out-of-pocket medical expenditures. We find robust empirical evidence that perceived health status matters more than objective health status and, consistent with the theory of background risk, health risk affects portfolio choices only in countries with less protective health care systems. Furthermore, portfolio decisions consistent with background risk models are observed only with respect to middle-aged and highly-educated investors.