Using U.K. microeconomic data, we analyze the empirical determinants of voluntary annuity market demand. We find that annuity market participation increases with financial wealth, life expectancy and education and decreases with other pension income and a possible bequest motive for surviving...

Why do Japanese households hold so few stocks? We use a quantitative life-cycle portfolio choice model to argue in favour of two main explanations. First, households have a very low level of trust in the stock market due to Japan's history of poor corporate governance. Second, stock returns to...

Intra-household heterogeneity can quantitatively affect the predictions of life-cycle portfolio choice models. Empirically, double-income households, single-income households and singles have different exposures to background risks and differ in covariates affecting financial decisions, reacting...