We study how retail savings products can share market risk across investor cohorts, thereby completing financial markets. Financial intermediaries smooth returns by varying reserves, which are passed on between successive investor cohorts, thereby redistributing wealth across cohorts. Using data on euro contracts sold by life insurers in France, we estimate this redistribution to be large: 0.8% of GDP. We develop and provide evidence for a model in which low investor sophistication, while leading to individually suboptimal decisions, improves risk sharing by allowing intercohort risk sharing.

中文翻译：

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可以跨投资者群体分担风险吗？来自流行储蓄产品的证据

我们研究零售储蓄产品如何在投资者群体之间分担市场风险，从而完善金融市场。金融中介通过不同的准备金来平滑回报，这些准备金在连续的投资者群体之间传递，从而在不同群体之间重新分配财富。使用法国人寿保险公司出售的欧元合同数据，我们估计这种重新分配很大：占 GDP 的 0.8%。我们为一个模型开发并提供证据，在该模型中，低投资者成熟度，虽然导致个别次优决策，但通过允许队列间风险分担来改善风险分担。