School of Business Finance
RISK AVERSION – EXAMINING WHAT AFFECTS FINNISH INVESTORS’ WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RISK IN FINANCIAL
DECISIONS
Bachelor’s thesis Mikko Joutsen (0297744) 18.5.2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ... 2
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND... 3
2.1 What is Behavioral Finance ... 3
2.2 Rational and Irrational Behavior... 6
2.3 Market Efficiency and Inefficiency ... 6
2.4 The Definition of Risk ... 7
2.5 Anomalies of Irrational Behavior... 9
2.5.1. Biases... 9
2.5.2. Heuristics... 10
2.5.3. Framing Effects... 11
2.5.4. The Disposition Effect... 12
3. RESEARCH DATA & METHODOLOGY ... 14
4. RESULTS... 19
5. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION ... 21
5.1. Conclusion ... 21
5.2. Suggestions for Further Study ... 22
REFERENCES... 23 APPENDIXES
1. INTRODUCTION
Not all investors are rational beings. Contrary to traditional theory that investor behavior relies on the rationality assumption, recent studies have shown that households, and even institutional investors, tend to behave irrationally (Rantapuska 2006). The underlying reasons for this unfounded behavior are the psychological features of investors which affect their willingness to take risk, thus, in turn causing them to make irrational investment decisions.
The goal of this thesis is to examine these underlying features and their effects on investors’ attitude toward risk, particularly from the Finnish private investor’s point of view. A particular focus of interest is how people born at different times make very different financial decisions, even in similar economic environments. This thesis was inspired by research done by Malmendier and Nagel who examined detailed survey data about American household’s finances between 1964 and 2004. Malmendier and Nagel examined how the financial choices of individuals are disproportionally affected by their personal economic experiences (Malmendier & Nagel 2008; The Economist 2009).
The basis of this thesis is embedded in behavioral finance which is a growing field of financial theory that applies psychology to financial behavior and seeks to explain the financial anomalies that traditional finance cannot (Shefrin 2002). Traditional financial theory does not effectively take into account the irrational behavior of investors and the inefficiency of markets. This makes it necessary to examine the subject of this thesis through the perspective of behavioral finance.
The structure of this thesis first gives its reader an introduction to the backgrounds of behavioral finance in section 2. Once the theoretical groundwork has been laid out, supporting empirical evidence is presented and analyzed in section 3. The results of the analysis are presented in section 4. The conclusion and suggestions for further study are discussed in the final section of this thesis – section 5.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 What is Behavioral Finance
As mentioned in the introduction, behavioral finance is the study of how psychology affects finance. It studies how people actually behave in financial settings taking into account human characteristics such as cognitive errors and behavioral biases. Also, as mentioned before, even though the views of traditional and behavioral financial theory differ, they do not completely rule each other out. Both disciplines seek to explain the same financial phenomenon but from different perspectives. According to Nofsinger (2005) behavioral finance should be considered and addition to traditional financial theory rather than a replacement.
Behavioral finance lays ease to one of the most important assumptions of traditional finance theory, investor rationality. As defined by Barberis and Thaler (2002), rationality means two things. Firstly, when financial markets receive new information, agents update their beliefs correctly. Secondly, given their beliefs, agents make choices that are normatively acceptable and consistent with the notion of Subjective Expected Utility. 1
Linnainmaa (2003) argues aptly that if psychological concepts such as heuristic simplification, mental accounting, framing effects, and social interactions affect human behavior, should they not also affect investor behavior? Based on this view point, behavioral finance studies what happens when one or both of the principles that underlie individual rationality are relaxed (Barberis & Thaler, 2002).
1 Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) is a method in decision theory in the presence of risk. For further
information, see e.g. Savage (1972).
In addition to psychology, behavioral finance also focuses on the topic of limits to arbitrage which states that in an economy where rational and irrational traders interact, irrationality can have a substantial and long-term impact on prices. This is contrary to the objection raised by traditional finance which argues that even if some agents in the economy are less than fully rational, rational agents will through arbitrage prevent them from influencing prices for very long. (Ibid.)
Behavioral finance started to flourish when the advances made by psychologists came to the knowledge of economists. The most notable psychological theories were presented by Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky in their 1982 volume
“Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases”. These authors’ works play a central role in the field of behavioral finance today. Slovic’s work laid emphasis on the misperceptions about risk. Kahneman and Tversky focused heuristic driven errors and frame dependence. (Kahneman et al. 1982; Shefrin 2007)
The fields of finance and economics have been slow to accept the views of behavioral finance claiming them heretical. However, over time the evidence that psychology and emotions influence financial decisions has become more convincing. Predictable decision errors by investors can influence the operation of markets. Even investors who claim to understand the principles of modern day investing can fail as investors if they are oblivious to how psychological biases can control their decisions. (Nofsinger 2005)
Before examining in more detail the psychological phenomenon that cause irrational behavior, it is important to draw one’s attention to how the concepts of rational and irrational behavior are defined in financial theory. Likewise consideration is also given to how the notions of market efficiency and inefficiency are characterized. It is also
important to take heed of how risk is defined since this thesis explores the factors that have an effect on investors’ willingness to take risk in financial decisions. In sum, it is vital to know the precise definition of what is being explained.
2.2 Rational and Irrational Behavior
According to Marschak (1950), the rational man can be defined as, “One who does not make logical of arithmetical errors.” However, a large proportion of people, especially in a hurry to act, tend to disobey the basic laws of logic and arithmetic, e.g. in mathematical equations. People are apt to misplace decimal points; conclude from the part to the whole – in other words, generalize; and confuse sufficient conditions with necessary ones. So being, people do not behave rationally but irrationally.
2.3 Market Efficiency and Inefficiency
Market efficiency theory consists of the efficient market hypothesis which, in general terms, asserts that financial markets are informationally efficient. This meaning that the prices of traded assets fully reflect all available information. (Fama 1970)
Empirical analyses have, however, consistently found problems with the efficient market hypothesis, the most consistent problem being that stocks with low price to earning values outperform other stocks. From the view of behavior finance, a proposed explanation for this would be that cognitive biases cause these inefficiencies, leading investors to purchase overpriced growth stocks rather than value stocks. (Basu 1977;
Fox 2002)
Behavioral finance presents obvious challenges to market efficiency theory. However, Fama (1998) dismisses these disputes on the grounds that efficiency theory is capable of withstanding the notions of conflict presented by behavioral finance. He also states that behavioral finance seeks only to explain the anomalies perceived in financial markets instead of trying to identify the fundamental forces that drive them.
Differing on Fama’s view, the view of this thesis is that the mere fact that these anomalies exist and cannot be fully explained by traditional financial theory is reason
enough to conclude that financial markets are not efficient. Prime examples of the failures of efficient market theory would be the collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), the bursting of the techno-bubble at the turn of the millennium, and most recently the subprime mortgage crisis. In consequence and for the purposes of this thesis, a certain degree of market inefficiency is assumed.
2.4 The Definition of Risk
In its broadest sense, risk can be defined as, “The chance, susceptible to the laws of probability, of an adverse situation arising”. (Webster, 2009)
In the context of this thesis, risk is defined from the perspective of finance as, “The possibility that an investment's actual return will be different than expected; includes the possibility of losing some or all of the original investment”. (Ibid.)
Building off the afore mentioned definition as well as the description of choices involving risk put forth by Friedman and Savage (1948), an individual’s risk preference refers to the amount of risk he or she is willing to bear in order to achieve a desired outcome. In financial literature, investors are categorized into different groups according to their risk preference. They are either risk averse, risk inclined or risk neutral.
A risk averse individual can be defined as a person who prefers less risk to more, all else being equal. Correspondingly, a risk averse investor is someone who is reluctant to accept a bargain with an uncertain payoff rather than another bargain with more certain, but possibly lower, expected payoff. A risk inclined (or risk loving) person is someone who prefers more risk to less, all else being equal. A person is risk neutral if he is indifferent to the amount of risk concerning a decision. (Ibid.)
2.5 Anomalies of Irrational Behavior
According to Shefrin (2007) psychological pitfalls that hamper rational judgment can be sorted into three categories: biases, heuristics, and framing effects. This chapter explores each of these categories, as well as their sub-categories, in turn. Many additional irregularities of investor behavior have been identified by researchers – most notably by John Nofsinger (2005) in his book “The Psychology of Investing – Second Edition". Several of Nofsinger’s observations are either extensions of or related to the psychological anomalies identified by psychologists Kahneman and Tversky, as well as Shefrin. In the hope of clarity and the concise handling of the subject at hand, this thesis focuses mainly on the same categorization employed by Shefrin.
2.5.1. Biases
Biases are predispositions toward error. Shefrin (2007) identifies four particular biases which are: excessive optimism, overconfidence, confirmation bias, and the illusion of control.
Excessive Optimism
According to Shefrin (2007), excessive optimism refers to the overestimation that individuals make on how frequently they will experience favorable outcomes and the underestimation on how frequently they will experience unfavorable outcomes.
Overconfidence
Shefrin (2007) defines overconfidence as a bias that relates to how well people understand their own abilities and the limit of their knowledge. Individuals who are overconfident about their abilities tend to think they are better than they actually are.
The same applies to knowledge. Individuals who are overconfident about their level of knowledge tend to think they know more than they actually do. Overconfidence does not
necessarily mean that individuals are ignorant or incompetent. Rather, it means that their view of themselves is better than is actually the case.
Confirmation Bias
In keeping with Shefrin’s (2007) definitions, confirmation bias refers to the habit of people of attaching too much importance to information that supports their views relative to information that runs counter to their views. In other words, people have a habit of hearing only what they want to hear. They spend too much time searching for reasons to support why their views are right and too little time searching for reasons that might lead them to conclude that their views are wrong.
Illusion of Control
The illusion of control refers to how individuals tend to exaggerate their view of how much control they exert over events and outcomes. According to Shefrin (2007), psychological studies have found that an increase in perceived control is followed by an increase in excessive optimism.
2.5.2. Heuristics
Heuristics are rules of thumb used to make decisions. The dictionary definition of the word heuristic refers to the process by which people find things out for themselves – usually by trial and error. This process often leads people to form rules of thumb.
However, it also often leads to other errors and biases. In this category a description of some of the most common behavioral biases that result from the reliance on particular heuristics are presented. These heuristics are known as: representativeness, availability, anchoring, and affect. (Shefrin 2002; 2007)
Representativeness
When a person makes judgments and predictions by relying on heuristics that make use of stereotypes, it is referred to by psychologists as representativeness. The notion indicates that a person is asking himself to what extent an object or idea is representative of the class to which it belongs to. The principle of representativeness was originally proposed by the psychologists Kahneman and Tversky. (Kahneman &
Tversky 1972; Shefrin 2007)
Availability
The availability heuristic refers to the anomaly of people relying on information that is more readily available and intuitive than information that is less prominent and more abstract, thereby biasing judgments. (Shefrin 2007)
Anchoring
Individuals often form estimates by beginning with an initial number with which they are familiar and then adjusting that number to reflect new information or circumstances.
However, when people make insufficient adjustments relative to that number it is referred to as anchoring. Similar to a dropped anchor that keeps a boat from floating too far, the initial numbers with which individuals begin can serve as anchors to their judgment. This behavioral bias may, for example, contribute to excessive optimism.
(Ibid.)
Affect
Most people base their decisions on what feels right to them emotionally. Psychologists use the term affect to mean emotional feeling, and they use the term affect heuristic to describe behavior that places heavy reliance on intuition, instinct, and gut feeling. The affect heuristic involves mental shortcuts that can predispose people to bias. (Ibid.)
2.5.3. Framing Effects
Framing effects denote how a person’s decisions are influenced by the manner in which the setting for the decision is described to him. In this context, the word frame is synonymous with the word description. A person is vulnerable to a framing effect when his or her decision is easily affected by the manner in which the setting for the decision is framed. (Ibid.)
Framing is an essential part of prospect theory, an approach that Kahneman and Tversky developed to describe how people make decision involving risk and uncertainty. Prospect theory features two significant framing phenomena with similar sounding names: loss aversion and aversion to a sure loss. (Ibid.)
Loss Aversion
When people experience a loss more strongly than a gain of the same magnitude, it is a behavioral phenomenon that psychologists refer to as loss aversion. This occurrence leads people to behave in a risk averse fashion when faced with alternatives that feature the possibility of both gain and loss. (Ibid.)
Aversion to a Sure Loss
People are averse to a sure loss when they choose to accept an unfair risk in an attempt to avoid a sure loss. This phenomenon is also referred to as get-evenitis.
(Shefrin 2002; 2007)
2.5.4. The Disposition Effect
Shefrin and Statman (1985) propose that (1) prospect theory, (2) mental accounting, (3) aversion and (4) self control may lead to a behavioral bias called the disposition effect.
The effect states that investors tend to sell winners too soon and hold losers too long.
This anomaly has been studied and analyzed most notably by Terrance Odean (1998).
He examined the trading records of 10,000 accounts at a large discount brokerage house. As a result of his studies, Odean found out that individuals are more likely to demonstrate a strong preference for realizing winners rather than losers, implying that people are generally risk averse. Odean also concluded that any alternate hypothesis that might justify the disposition effect based on rational behavior seemed to be lacking.
(Odean 1998)
However, as Linnainmaa (2003) points out, though the disposition effect appeared in the data Odean examined, in Linnainmaa’s own studies investors themselves did not necessarily display a habit of selling winners. Nonetheless, they were risk averse as well.
3. RESEARCH DATA & METHODOLOGY
To examine what affects Finnish investors’ willingness to take risk in financial decisions data was collected from surveys conducted by the Federation of Finnish Financial Services (Finanssialan Keskusliitto). The surveys used were: the Survey of Household Liabilities and Assets (Kotitalouksien varat ja velat) 2008; Survey of Young People (Nuorisotutkimus) 2008; Survey of Senior Citizens (Senioritutkimus) 2008; Banking Survey (Pankkibarometritiedote) I/2008 and I/2009; Current State of the Finnish Economy. A description of each of the above, as well as an explanation of the data and methodology used in this thesis is given in the text that follows.
The Federation of Finnish Financial Services is an interest group that represents banks, insurance agencies, finance companies, securities brokerages, and employers of the finance industry that operate in Finland. In addition to lobbying for its members and aiming to secure the Finnish financial industry a safe, effective and well-functioning operating environment, the group also gathers statistics and releases publications.
These publications include surveys, banking guides, and guidelines for good practices in banking and insurance. (Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2009b)
The Survey of Household Liabilities and Assets 2008 was done by the Federation of Finnish Financial Services using statistical data from the Bank of Finland (Suomen Pankki), Financial Supervision (Rahoitustarkastus), the Ministry of Finance (Valtiovarainministeriö), and Statistic Finland (Tilastokeskus). The survey examined household income, consumption, savings, the incurring of debt, and the division of financial assets. The survey was published 4.6.2008. (Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2008a)
The Survey of Young People 2008 was conducted in January of 2008 by IROResearch on behalf of the Federation of Finnish Financial Services, as an interview study of more than 1,000 young people from all over Finland aged 15-28. The questions in the interview concerned spending, borrowing, saving, methods of payment as well as interests in banking and economic affairs. The survey was published 16.6.2008.
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2008b)
The Survey of Senior Citizens 2008 was also conducted in January 2008 by IROResearch on behalf of the Federation of Finnish Financial Service. The survey was carried out by interviewing 207 people belonging to an age group of 75-85. The interview questions were akin to those of the Survey of Young People. The survey was published 24.6.2008. (Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2008d)
The Banking Survey is published four times a year. The survey inquires the views of 350 bank managers concerning the lending and deposits of households and businesses. The respondents include bank managers, office directors, and credit managers among other senior bank office officials at the four largest Finnish banks:
Nordea, OP-Pohjola Group, Sampo Bank, and Savings Banks (Säästöpankit). The responses are indicated as percentage values of the respondents. This thesis examines the Banking Survey of the first period of 2008 (published 26.3.2008) as well as 2009 (published 31.3.2009). (Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2008c; 2009c)
The Current State of the Finnish Economy contains key graphs prepared by the Federation of Finnish Financial Services. As with the Survey of House Hold Liabilities and Assets, this survey also contains statistical information compiled from official financial institutions such as the Bank of Finland, European Commission, Statistics Finland, The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Ministry of Finance. The data shows the general trend of the Finnish economy by
focusing on consumer and industrial confidence, stock prices, interest rates, inflation, employment, and GDP. (Finanssialan Keskusliitto 2009a)
The data used in this thesis centers mainly around the information of the different surveys concerning household financial assets – especially those in savings accounts, mutual funds, and stocks1. The criteria of households for choosing financial assets are also of interest. The analysis of the data seeks to find a congruence between the different surveys and explain the results in the view of behavioral finance and in the spirit of this thesis.
The methodology of this thesis is simply to compare, analyze and draw conclusion of the research data presented above. No complex statistical tests are run simply because the data at hand did not allow for it and the necessary numeric data was not available.
However, the surveys above contain results from previous studies that date all the way back to 1997. This allows for a convenient way to examine what kinds of trends emerge from the data. In addition, the interest group has done age group comparisons in the surveys, which permit a suitable method of examining differences and similarities in between the groups. Both of these features serve the purposes of this thesis adequately.
For achieving results and drawing conclusions of the statistical data, the data is examined in the same groups as presented in the surveys. Young people (aged 15-28) form their own group as do senior citizens (aged 75-85). These two groups allow for a clear examination of how their financial environments differ according to their age. A particular interest is the amount of savings and investments in both groups, as well as the type of financial assets that equity is tied to.
Another point of interest is to examine how the Finnish stock market index and the average rate of inflation have developed during the lifespan of the senior citizens and the young people. A comparison is done to see if the conclusion can be drawn that individuals’ experiences of economic circumstance have affected their willingness to take risk and thus their financial decisions and ultimately their present financial situation.
1 In the context of this thesis, savings accounts are seen as low risk forms of investment. Consequently,
mutual funds and stocks are viewed as being higher risk forms of investments.
The average rate of inflation is calculated from data obtained from Statistic Finland. The data showing the development of the Finnish stock market index OMX Helsinki was obtained from the archives of Kauppalehti.fi, the web portal of one of the leading business newspapers in Finland.
In reference to the two previous chapters, it must be noted that the data obtained to illustrate the development of the average rate of inflation in Finland goes back in time only until 1975. Also, the data of the development of the Finnish stock market index stretches back only until 1993. Thus, to the limits of the data at hand, this thesis is forced to make certain assumptions in connection to the points of interest described in the previous chapters. This fact is also brought up in conclusions of this thesis.
Households form their own group and are considered a general representative of all Finnish consumers (including both young people and senior citizens). The composition of their financial assets are also examined and compared to that of the senior citizens and young people, which are in turn compared to the results of the banking surveys and to the statistics of the Current State of the Finnish Economy –survey. The aim of these comparisons is to aid in drawing conclusions of the research results.
4. RESULTS
In relation to the financial assets of young people, in 2008 49 % of respondents announced they had savings or investments. Of this portion, 30 % indicated they had assets in savings, investment or other types of accounts; 10 % in mutual funds; 7 % in stocks (appendix 1). In order, the five most important criteria for young people in choosing financial assets were the safety (74 % of respondents), low risk (57 %), convenience (46 %), profit (44 %), and liquidity (38 %) of the investment (appendix 2).
These results may be interpreted as young people assigning value to relatively safe investment forms.
For senior citizen in 2008, 58 % of respondents claimed they had savings or investments. Of these, 29 % had assets in savings, investment or other types of accounts; 9 % in investment funds; 8 % stocks (appendix 3). On behalf of this group, the five most important criteria for choosing financial assets were: security (67 % of respondents), safety (47 %), convenience (47 %), profit (29 %), and liquidity (28 %) (appendix 4). Similar to the results found in the Survey of Young People, the results for senior citizens may be interpreted as the age group valuing safe and low-risk investments as well.
All together, households in Finland had over 127 billion euros in financial assets in the first quarter of 2008. Of these, 64.2 billion euros were invested in savings accounts, 15.8 billion in mutual funds, and about 24.8 billion in stocks. These results also show that Finnish households in general preferred a low-risk investment form because a majority of their financial assets were invested into savings accounts. (Appendix 5)
In regard to the banking survey of the first quarter of 2008, 95 % of senior bank office officials believed that household deposits into savings accounts would increase.
However, only 5 % believed that investments into stocks or equity funds would increase, as did only 28 % with bonds and bond funds. The majority of respondents believed that the development trend of stocks and equity funds would be downward. Investments into bonds and bond funds were viewed as remaining unchanged. (Appendix 6)
In contrast, the banking survey of the first quarter of 2009 showed that the percentage of senior bank officials who believed that deposits into savings accounts would increase had dropped to 60 %. The proportion of officials who were of the opinion that investments into stocks and equity funds would increase, had gone up to 42 %. Also the proportion believing in the increase of investments into bonds and bond funds had risen to 44 %. (Appendix 7)
The consumer confidence indicator for Finland from the survey of The Current State of the Finnish Economy indicates a general downward trend for 2008. However, the statistics for the first quarter of 2009 shows a correction upwards. (Appendix 8)
According to the statistics of Statistics Finland, inflation had increased to over 4 % in 2008 (appendix 9). At the same time, the OMX Helsinki index had continued on a downward trend (appendix 10).
The results of the banking surveys, the statistics of the consumer confidence indicator, the trend of inflation, and the development of the OMX Helsinki index can all be understood as an indication that the Finnish economy was heading into more worrisome times in 2008 - which in hindsight was the case.
5. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
5.1. Conclusion
The conclusion of all the results showcased in section 4, is that a weakened perception of the general economic development and the uncertainty of the financial markets was reflected in the increase of popularity among savings accounts. This means that Finnish households clearly displayed risk averse behavior by preferring low-risk financial investments.
Interestingly enough, the almost identical composition of financial assets and the criteria for choosing them among young people and senior citizens was a relative surprise. In the view of this thesis, this kind of risk averse behavior could be expected from the senior citizens, since in their lifetime (or at least in the time period of the available data) they have experienced a greater variance in inflation and stock prices than young people, making them more prone to avoiding risk. Therefore, it would have been expected that young people would be more prone to taking risk than senior citizens.
Since this is not the case, the conclusion may be drawn that young people are as capable as senior citizens in demonstrating risk averse behavior, even though they lack the same experiences of economic circumstances.
The results of this thesis leave room to speculate exactly what behavioral aspects affected Finnish households’ willingness to take risk in financial decisions. It can be concluded, however, that certain behavioral anomalies described in the theoretical section of this thesis can be attached to the reason why Finnish households chose to invest in financial assets the way they did.
5.2. Suggestions for Further Study
For further study, a more advanced statistical analysis of Finnish private investors’
willingness to take risk would be warranted. Such an analysis would yield hard data to support the theoretical context of this thesis as well as the empirical results of other studies in corresponding matters. The statistical study of private investors would follow the same approach as used by Malmendier and Nagel in their analysis of survey data about American household’s finances, as described in the introduction.
The statistical analysis would require data from a database of private customers, which mostly likely would be maintained by an organization that collects financial data, e.g. a bank or mutual fund. Constructing a linear regression analysis with variables taking into account the generic features of investors (e.g. gender, age, marital status) as well as their wealth and proportion of invested capital, and calculating the effect on the average amount of risk in an investor’s investment portfolio, would yield the necessary data to allow a comparison to the average stock returns and inflation that individuals have experienced over the course of their lives. It is this author’s belief that the results of this statistical analysis would reinforce the results found by Malmendier and Nagel, and show that experienced economical conditions truly affect an individual’s willingness to take risk and thus their investment decision.
Other interesting topics for further research relating to behavioral finance are to study institutional investors’ willingness to take risk and how behavioral aspects apply to them.
Another appealing topic would be to examine the effect of behavioral finance on the use of real-option techniques which allow for flexibility in investment decisions.
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26) Tilastokeskus. 2009. Hinnat ja kustannukset: Inflaatio [web document].
[Referenced: 19.4.2009]. Available:
http://tilastokeskus.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_hinnat.html#inflaatio
27) Webster’s Online Dictionary. 2009. Specialty Definition: Risk [web document].
[Referenced: 18.4.2009]. Available at:
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/ri/risk.html
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008b)
APPENDIX 2. Savings and Investment Criteria of Young People (aged 15-28) in 2008
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008b)
APPENDIX 3. Savings and Investments of Senior Citizens (aged 75-85) in 2008
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008d)
APPENDIX 4. Savings and Investment Criteria of Senior Citizens (aged 75-85) in 2008
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008d)
APPENDIX 5. Household Financial Assets, 1991 – 1/2008
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008a)
APPENDIX 6. Banking Survey: Household Savings and Investments (I/2008)
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2008c)
APPENDIX 7. Banking Survey: Household Savings and Investments (I/2009)
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2009c)
APPENDIX 8. Consumer Confidence Indicator, 1988 – 1/2009
(Finanssialan Keskusliitto, 2009a)
APPENDIX 9. Average Rate of Inflation in Finland, 1975-2008
(Tilastokeskus, 2009)
APPENDIX 10. Development of the OMX Helsinki Index, 1993 – 1/2009
(Kauppalehti.fi, 2009)
