Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/192377 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Papers No. 395
Publisher: 
Statistics Norway, Research Department, Oslo
Abstract: 
The household portfolio is dominated by a small number of assets; primarily housing and mortgages. We compare data on actual portfolios of Norwegian households with estimated optimal portfolios, using traditional financial theory. We find actual portfolios to be close to the portfolio indicated by a mean-variance frontier, based on four assets and estimated under assumptions of short sale constraints. This result is sustained even in a no-tax regime. To induce a substantial change from housing to equity, taxation of the consumption stream from housing is needed. An alternative; taxation of capital gains from housing investment; could actually increase the relative holding of housing.
Subjects: 
Households
portfolio choice
consumption tax
capital gains tax.
JEL: 
G11
H2
H31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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