A further look at household portfolio choice and health status

This paper investigates the effect of changes in health status on household financial wealth and financial portfolio choice. It is shown that the impact of health events on household financial and non-financial wealth is asymmetric. A diagnosis of a new disease leads to a larger decrease in financial wealth than in non-financial wealth. Moreover, we find that the puzzle pertaining to the relationship between health status and portfolio choice discussed in the extant literature generally disappears after controlling for differences in the amount of financial assets held by healthy and sick people. The results suggest that the effect of changes in health status on household financial portfolios is indirect. A health shock significantly reduces household total financial wealth, in turn leading households to restructure the composition of their financial assets.     

The Joy of Giving or Assisted Living? Using Strategic Surveys to Separate Public Care Aversion from Bequest Motives

The “annuity puzzle,” conveying the apparently low interest of retirees in longevity insurance, is central to household finance. Two possible explanations are “public care aversion” (PCA), retiree aversion to simultaneously running out of wealth and being in need of long‐term care, and an intentional bequest motive. To disentangle the relative importance of PCA and bequest motive, we estimate a structural model of the retirement phase using a novel survey instrument that includes hypothetical questions. We identify PCA as very significant and find bequest motives that spread deep into the middle class. Our results highlight potential interest in annuities that make allowance for long‐term care expenses.     

乐观预期、保障能力与商业保险购买——来自中国家庭的微观证据

本文基于中国家庭微观调查数据,在考虑商业保险“保障”和“投资”双重属性的前提下,实证研究了乐观预期对家庭商业保险购买的影响。结果发现,乐观预期对家庭商业保险购买存在显著的积极影响,即户主乐观预期程度越高,家庭购买商业保险的意愿越强。进一步区分保障型商业保险和投资型商业保险,发现乐观预期对商业保险购买的积极影响主要来自对投资型商业保险的需求,对保障型商业保险购买的影响则不显著。更重要地,不同风险保障能力下乐观预期对商业保险购买存在异质性影响,家庭储蓄较多、社会保障覆盖较好以及社会资本水平较高的家庭,乐观预期对商业保险购买的积极影响更大。本研究不仅有助于从预期视角理解商业保险市场的“有限参与”之谜,也为提升家庭风险保障和财富增值能力提供了借鉴。     

社会养老保险“多轨制”与家庭股票市场参与

依据中国家庭金融调查数据,运用Probit模型和Tobit模型,考量社会养老保险“多轨制”对家庭股票市场参与的影响。结果显示：社会养老保险“多轨制”通过缓解收入风险、健康风险与风险厌恶程度等,影响家庭股票市场参与;家庭净资产水平和信任水平异质性,影响家庭股票市场参与差异。其中,参加企职保或机关事业单位养老保险促进家庭股票市场参与显著,参加城乡居保影响不显著。鉴于此,应进一步整合社会养老保险“多轨制”,提高城乡居保的养老保障水平,充分发挥社会养老保险对家庭股票市场参与的促进作用。     

移动互联网可及性、金融排斥与商业健康保险参与——来自CHFS数据的证据

基于2017年中国家庭金融调查（CHFS）数据,使用Probit和Tobit模型,研究了移动互联网可及性对商业健康保险参与的影响。研究发现：移动互联网可及性能显著提高商业健康保险的参与概率和程度,对城镇、户主受教育程度高和成员有创业经历的家庭的影响更大。采用所在小区智能手机平均数量作为工具变量进行内生性处理,使用移动支付替换关键变量,结论均稳健成立。机制分析表明移动互联网可及性可通过缓解金融排斥促进家庭参与商业健康保险。     

Does bancassurance add value for banks? - Evidence from mergers and acquisitions between European banks and insurance companies

This paper investigates the risk and wealth effects of 72 mergers and acquisitions between banks in Europe and insurance companies during the period 1989-2004. The empirical results indicate that acquirers’ total risks remain constant relative to the world, home market indices and home banking indices. There are no changes for the systematic risks (beta) with respect to the world market index or the home banking index. After removing world and home market indices effect, systematic risk against home banking index reduce significantly for domestic deals. In addition, positive wealth effects are documented. Two factors have contributed to the bidders’ cumulative abnormal returns (CARs): relative deal size and being a serial acquirer. Finally, change of beta shows negative relations with CARs.     

收入差距对养老保险参保率的影响:数值分析与实证研究

扩大养老保险覆盖率是当前养老保险改革与发展的首要目标.文章以现行基本养老保险制度为基础,采用数值分析方法研究了居民收入差距变化养老保险参保率的影响,研究结果表明,由于收入水平与参保意愿呈倒“U”型关系,所以收入差距与参保率之间表现出负相关关系,即随着收入差距的扩大,养老保险参保率将逐渐下降.在理论分析基础上,文章采用分省面板数据对收入差距与养老保险参保率之间的关系进行了实证检验,实证研究结果证实了理论分析的推论.     

“Skewness and Stock Option Prices”, Hans Gerber and Bruno Landry,July 1997

We determine the optimal amount of life insurance for a household of two wage earners. We consider the simple case of exponential utility, thereby removing wealth as a factor in buying life insurance, while retaining the relationship among life insurance, income, and the probability of dying and thus losing that income. For insurance purchased via a single premium or premium payable continuously, we explicitly determine the optimal death benefit. We show that if the premium is determined to target a specific probability of loss per policy, then the rates of consumption are identical under single premium or continuously payable premium. Thus, not only is equivalence of consumption achieved for the households under the two premium schemes, it is also obtained for the insurance company in the sense of equivalence of loss probabilities.     

金融市场参与、风险异质性与家庭幸福

本文研究了金融市场参与对家庭幸福的影响。理论分析显示,金融市场参与通过风险和收益对家庭幸福产生影响。本文运用2015年中国家庭金融调查数据,实证研究了金融市场参与对家庭幸福的影响。为克服内生性,本文选取工具变量,运用极大似然估计发现,家庭参与金融市场会显著提高家庭幸福的可能性。从投资风险的角度进一步研究发现,金融投资的风险异质性对家庭幸福有显著影响:家庭参与低风险金融投资会显著提高家庭幸福,参与高风险金融投资会显著降低家庭幸福。从民间借贷参与中,本文发现家庭参与民间借出款会显著提高家庭幸福的可能性。民间借贷投资风险对家庭幸福的异质性影响也是存在的,高风险借出款对家庭幸福有显著的负向影响。本文为理解家庭金融投资行为与幸福的关系提供了新的证据,可为构建和谐社会提供有益参考。     

The role of life insurance in an emerging economy: Human capital protection,assets allocation and social interaction

In this paper, we provide micro-econometric evidence on the determinants of life insurance demand in China, the largest emerging market in the world. We employ the China Household Income Project (CHIP) dataset for the year 2002 in the analysis. The timing is ideal, because of the nature of the less well developed capital markets and social security systems in China in 2002, which sets a suitable stage to study the insurance demand behavior of emerging markets. The results indicate that both the human capital protection motive and the asset allocation motive are important in explaining the purchase of life insurance in China. In addition, we present three empirical regularities: (1) the positive correlation between the returns to human capital and the returns to market portfolio decrease the demand for life insurance; (2) both the current wealth and future income of a household exert curvilinear impacts on life insurance demand; (3) the breadth of a households social connections has substantial impacts on life insurance demand.     

News Shocks,Business Cycles,and the Disinflation Puzzle

We argue that key findings of the empirical literature on the effects of news about future technology—including their tendency to generate negative comovement of macro-economic aggregates, and their puzzling disinflationary nature—are due to measurement errors in total factor productivity (TFP). In this paper, we estimate the macro-economic effects of news shocks in the United States using an agnostic identification approach that is robust to measurement errors. We find no evidence of negative comovement conditional on a news shock, and the disinflation puzzle essentially vanishes under our identification strategy. Our results also indicate that news shocks have become an important driver of business-cycle fluctuations in recent years.     

财富积累、风险规避与农民工社会保险需求——来自湖北省武汉市的实证研究

分析了经典理论假设下的农民工社会保险参保行为及保险需求,并基于2007年武汉市的调研数据,通过计量模型对样本地区农民工财富积累水平与保险需求之间的关系进行了研究。实证结果显示,农民工城市融合过程中存在保险需求悖论:随着融合阶段的推进,农民工对保险的需求随财富水平的增加而增加。研究还发现,收入水平有限、制度认知不足、权力意识的缺乏与制度设计不合理是造成融合初期农民工保险需求不足的原因;现行城乡非均等化的公共服务体系及"社会比较"心理是导致融合后期农民工社会保险需求仍然较强的可能的解释。     

不确定性与中国城镇居民储蓄率的实证研究

本文从不确定性收入、社会保险的参与情况对中国城镇居民面临的不确定性进行了界定,并使用2006年中国综合社会调查数据(CGSS2006)检验了不确定性对城镇居民储蓄率的影响。基于稳健OLS和可行广义最小二乘法(FGLS)的估计结果表明:不确定性收入与城镇居民储蓄率之间存在着显著的正相关关系,参加养老保险和医疗保险可以显著降低城镇居民的储蓄率。分位数回归的结果进一步显示:在各分位处,不确定性收入均对城镇居民储蓄率产生了显著的正向影响,并且影响强度随着储蓄率分位的上升而下降;而在储蓄率分布的0.5及以上中高分位处,参加养老保险可以显著降低城镇家庭的储蓄率;在储蓄率分布的顶端,参加医疗保险也与城镇居民储蓄率之间表现出显著的负相关关系。     

Optimal insurance contract and coverage levels under loss aversion utility preference

This study develops an optimal insurance contract endogenously and determines the optimal coverage levels with respect to deductible insurance, upper-limit insurance, and proportional coinsurance, and, by assuming that the insured has an S-shaped loss aversion utility, the insured would retain the enormous losses entirely. The representative optimal insurance form is the truncated deductible insurance, where the insured retains all losses once losses exceed a critical level and adopts a particular deductible otherwise. Additionally, the effects of the optimal coverage levels are also examined with respect to benchmark wealth and loss aversion coefficient. Moreover, the efficiencies among various insurances are compared via numerical analysis by assuming that the loss obeys a uniform or log-normal distribution. In addition to optimal insurance, deductible insurance is the most efficient if the benchmark wealth is small and upper-limit insurance if large. In the case of a uniform distribution that has an upper bound, deductible insurance and optimal insurance coincide if benchmark wealth is small. Conversely, deductible insurance is never optimal for an unbounded loss such as a log-normal distribution.     

Wealth shocks,unemployment shocks and consumption in the wake of the Great Recession

Data from the 2009 Internet Survey of the Health and Retirement Study show that many US households experienced large capital losses in housing and financial wealth, and that 5% of respondents lost their job during the Great Recession. For every loss of 10% in housing and financial wealth, the estimated drop in household expenditure was about 0.56% and 0.9%, respectively. Those who became unemployed reduced spending by 10%. In line with predictions of standard inter-temporal choice models, households who perceived the stock market shock to be permanent adjusted spending much more than those who perceived the shock to be temporary.     

Entrepreneurship and household portfolio choice: Evidence from the China Household Finance Survey

The efficient allocation of household assets is important for household wealth and entrepreneurial activities. However, there is scarce evidence on how entrepreneurial activities influence household financial decisions. We use a simple model to characterize the impact of entrepreneurship on household portfolio choice and the two underlying channels—the diversification effect and the risk substitution effect. We also empirically examine the impact of entrepreneurship using data from the 2013, 2015, and 2017 waves of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). The empirical results show that entrepreneurship significantly decreases both household risky market participation and risky asset holding. These findings are robust to alternative measurements of key variables, different model specifications, and Lewbel’s two-stage estimators. This study also verifies the co-existence of both the diversification and risk substitution effects. In particular, the net effect of entrepreneurship on household portfolio choice varies between urban and rural areas due to the different offsetting results between the two effects.     

Zur Quantifizierung der Risikoprämien deutscher Versicherungsaktien im Kontext eines Multifaktorenmodells

In this contribution we present an empirical study that focuses on the relationship between risk and return for a universe of insurance Stocks in Germany during the period 1975–1998. The study was conducted using a multi factor model. The proportion of explained variance ranges from 9.29% to 13.62% in the monthly regressions. We found a significant and negative relationship between changes in the term structure of interest rates and the risk premiums for insurance Stocks. Also significant is the exchange rate of the Deutsche Mark against the US-Dollar.     

养老社会保障与城镇居民消费：理论分析与实证检验

自20世纪90年代以来,我国城镇居民消费倾向降低和储蓄率不断增加成为不争的事实。我国居民储蓄很大程度上受将来养老金发放以及医疗卫生和教育成本等不确定因素的影响,完善社会保障可以降低这些不确定性,从而促进居民消费。国外学者关于老年消费的研究以及养老社会保障对居民消费和储蓄的影响研究由来已久,并随着消费函数理论和实证研究方法的发展而不断深入。而与其他国家相比,我国养老社会保障现状又具有自身的特殊性,其对消费的影响效应是否与西方学者的研究结果一致？本文采用理论分析和实证研究相结合的方法,在消费函数理论框架内考查我国是否也存在退休消费困境以及养老保障对城镇居民消费的影响。     

Trading death: The implications of annuity replication for the annuity puzzle,arbitrage, speculation and portfolios

Annuities are perceived as being illiquid financial instruments, and this has limited their attractiveness to consumers and their inclusion in financial models. However, short positions in annuities can be replicated using life insurance and debt, permitting long positions in annuities to be offset, or short annuity positions to be created. The implications of this result for the annuity puzzle, arbitrage between the annuity and life insurance markets, and speculation on expected longevity are investigated. It is argued that annuity replication could help reduce the annuity puzzle, improve the price efficiency of annuity markets and promote the inclusion of annuities in household portfolios.     

金融素养、家庭财富与家庭创业决策

本文利用2015年中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,分析了金融素养、家庭财富与家庭创业决策三者之间的关系。整体上,金融素养的提高显著增加了家庭参与创业的可能性,但家庭参与创业面临着"财富约束效应";而金融素养对家庭财富具有替代作用,提高金融素养有效缓解了家庭的"财富约束效应",促进家庭参与创业。同时,研究发现家庭财富对家庭创业决策的影响并不存在明显的城乡差异,但金融素养更能缓解农村家庭创业所面临的"财富约束效应"。另外,提高金融素养能有效缓解家庭的信贷约束,增加其风险偏好,间接地促进创业。