We use comparable data from the U.S. and England to examine similarities and differences in the level and trajectories of assets among households age 70 and older. We find that in the U.S. assets on average decline gradually with age, while in England older households actually accumulate wealth....

Are households more likely to be homeowners when “housing risk” is higher? We show that home-ownership rates and loan-to-value (LTV ) ratios at the city level are strongly negatively correlated with local house price volatility. However, causal inference is confounded by house price levels,...

There is a common perception that households are under-saving for retirement - indeed this has motivated many recent policy reforms in the UK. In this paper we use a structural model, specified to closely match the UK policy environment, to investigate this ‘fact' for the cohort born in the...

Prices of real and financial assets fell substantially in the UK during 2008-09. The fourth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was in the field throughout this 'financial crisis'. We use these data and earlier ELSA waves first to document the effect of the crisis on the...