A cross-sectional analysis of asset holdings

This article introduces cross-sectional data on asset holdings derived from a survey of Australian households. We use the data to estimate asset Engel curves which are shown to fit the data extremely well. The findings indicate that cash and bank deposits and insurance are necessities, with wealth elasticities less than unity, own home has an elasticity of one and the other four assets 1) other property, 2) shares and securities, 3) superannuation, and 4) unincorporated business] are luxuries with wealth elasticities greater than unity. The Engel curve estimates are used to explain differences in the dispersion of the portfolio across households and to compute a measure of the substitutability complementarity between the individual assets. The results indicate that 1) housing is a substitute for all other assets and 2) business related assets are all pairwise complements.