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Abstract

Vol. 66, No. 3, pp. 242-264 (2015)

“Residential Property and Household Stock Holdings: Evidence from Japanese Micro Data”
Tokuo Iwaisako (Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University), Arito Ono (Faculty of Commerce, Chuo University), Amane Saito (Mizuho Research Institute), Hidenobu Tokuda (Mizuho Research Institute)

Using a unique survey dataset of Japanese households from 2000 to 2010, this paper examines the relationship between residential property and household stock holdings and finds the followings. First, the ratio of households owning residential property decreased during the 2000s, whereas the ratio of households owning stocks increased in the mid-2000s and remained the same thereafter. Second, households with higher ratios of residential property to gross total asset are less likely to own stocks. Third, conditional on owning stocks, households with higher ratios of residential property to gross total asset exhibit higher ratios of stocks to total financial assets. Our findings suggest that housing assets are important for household portfolio choice among financial assets.