Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Heuristic portfolio rules with labor income

  • Marcel Fischer
  • , Marlene Koch*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We propose a heuristic portfolio rule, which significantly simplifies individuals' asset allocation decisions over the life cycle. Under this heuristic, equity exposure is a linear function of the individual's labor-to-wealth ratio and age. When individuals follow our heuristic, welfare gains when switching to the optimal policy are only 0.35% of lifetime consumption (around USD 9,800). Relative to portfolio strategies used by individuals in the data, welfare gains from using our heuristic are about 2.2% (around USD 61,600). Our results are robust to different educational attainments and family structures.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1426-1444
Number of pages19
JournalEuropean journal of finance
Volume31
Issue number11
Early online date1 Apr 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

JEL classifications

  • e21 - "Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth"
  • g11 - "Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions"

Keywords

  • Consumption-savings decisions
  • heuristic portfolio choice
  • life cycle model
  • household finance
  • LIFE-CYCLE
  • FINANCIAL LITERACY
  • ASSET ALLOCATION
  • CHOICE
  • STOCK
  • CONSUMPTION

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Heuristic portfolio rules with labor income'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this