Precautionary Saving and Health Insurance: A Portfolio Choice Perspective Journal Articles

abstract

• This paper analyzes the impact of health insurance on household portfolio choice. Using the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finance and Health Retirement Survey databases, it finds that insured households are more likely to own stocks and invest a larger proportion of financial assets in stocks than uninsured households do. The results remain strong even after controlling for household characteristics and reverse causality. Further, the results are robust across different survey years and data sources. It suggests that a precautionary motive is strong in household portfolio choice decisions.

authors

• Qiu, Jiaping

status

• published 

publication date

• June 1, 2016

has subject area

• 1402 Applied Economics (FoR)

published in

• Frontiers of Economics in China  Journal

keywords

• G11
• I10
• I18
• health insurance
• portfolio choice
• precautionary motive

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.3868/s060-005-016-0015-0

start page

• 232

end page

• 264

volume

• 11

issue

• 2