Stockholding in France: the role of financial literacy and information.

Summary We use an original household survey to study the links between stockholding, financial literacy and acquisition of financial information within the French population. Controlling for subjective expectations on stock market returns and for risk aversion, we find that stock market participation is positively related to basic financial literacy and financial information acquisition through the press reading and the family financial context during childhood. We also find that basic financial literacy is not correlated with the share of stocks in financial assets conditionally on stockownership, while the correlation with information acquisition is significant.