Analysis of variance in household financial portfolio choice: evidence from Spain

Abstract

We analyse the determinants of the household financial portfolio allocation using an estimator and a variance decomposition that take into account the constrained nature of household portfolio allocations. We apply these methods to a large data set of financial assets. Results show that the main factors underlying household financial portfolio choice in Spain are age and net wealth. Among others, there is also evidence of sizeable effects associated with risk aversion, education, liquidity constraints and income, but very modest effects are associated with family size and having accounts in stand-alone internet banks. Implications for policy are also derived.