Optimal Financial Knowledge and Wealth Inequality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lusardi, Annamaria; Michaud, Pierre-Carl; Mitchell, Olivia S.
• 署名单位: George Washington University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Universite de Montreal; HEC Montreal; RAND Corporation; Rand Health; University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/690950
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 431-477
• 关键词: life-cycle; risk-aversion; portfolio choice; literacy; consumption; time; INVESTMENT; preference; HEALTH; MODEL

摘要

We show that financial knowledge is a key determinant of wealth inequality in a stochastic life cycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation, where financial knowledge enables individuals to better allocate lifetime resources in a world of uncertainty and imperfect insurance. Moreover, because of how the US social insurance system works, better-educated individuals have most to gain from investing in financial knowledge. Our parsimonious specification generates substantial wealth inequality relative to a one-asset saving model and one in which returns on wealth depend on portfolio composition alone. We estimate that 30-40 percent of retirement wealth inequality is accounted for by financial knowledge.