Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare Costs of Household Investment Mistakes

Posted: 21 Dec 2007

See all articles by Laurent E. Calvet

Laurent E. Calvet

SKEMA Business School; CEPR

John Y. Campbell

Harvard University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Paolo Sodini

Stockholm School of Economics - Department of Finance; Swedish House of Finance

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Abstract

This paper investigates the efficiency of household investment decisions using comprehensive disaggregated Swedish data. We consider two main sources of inefficiency: underdiversification ("down") and nonparticipation in risky asset markets ("out"). While a few households are very poorly diversified, most Swedish households outperform the Sharpe ratio of their domestic stock index through international diversification. Financially sophisticated households invest more efficiently but also more aggressively, and overall they incur higher return losses from underdiversification. The return cost of nonparticipation is smaller by almost one-half when we take account of the fact that nonparticipants would unlikely be inefficient investors.

Suggested Citation

Calvet, Laurent E. and Campbell, John Y. and Sodini, Paolo, Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare Costs of Household Investment Mistakes. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 115, No. 5, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1076648

Laurent E. Calvet

SKEMA Business School ( email )

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CEPR ( email )

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John Y. Campbell (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Department of Economics ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Paolo Sodini

Stockholm School of Economics - Department of Finance ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.hhs.se/secfi/People/Faculty/Finpso/finp

Swedish House of Finance ( email )

Drottninggatan 98
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Sweden

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