The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
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Can Security Design Foster Household Risk‐Taking?
Published: 04/23/2023 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13232
LAURENT E. CALVET, CLAIRE CELERIER, PAOLO SODINI, BORIS VALLEE
This paper shows that securities with nonlinear payoff designs can foster household risk‐taking. We demonstrate this effect by exploiting the introduction of capital guarantee products in Sweden between 2002 and 2007. Their fast and broad adoption is associated with an increase in expected financial portfolio returns. The effect is especially strong for households with low‐risk appetite ex ante. These empirical facts are consistent with a life‐cycle model in which households have pessimistic beliefs or preferences combining loss aversion and narrow framing. Our results illustrate how security design can mitigate behavioral biases to increase mean household portfolio returns.