Stockholding in the Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter details the trends in (in) direct stockownership and in portfolio shares of different types of risky assets conditional upon ownership in the Netherlands over much of the past decade, and tries to identify some of the main driving forces of household investment behaviour. We use descriptive evidence from macro data sources to show overall trends in household sector portfolio composition. To identify the economic and demographic characteristics of the average household we use a recent micro data set that follows individual households over time. This CentER Savings Survey (CSS), administered in close cooperation with economists and other academics studying saving behaviour, is an extraordinary rich source of information that not only reflects the major trends in financial markets for the private household sector, but also allows inference on which household characteristics are associated with level and composition of financial portfolios