This paper studies household financial choices in four EU countries. The estimation of key parameters uses a simulation method of moments approach to match moments on asset market participation rates, portfolio shares and wealth to income ratios by education group and country. The policy functions based upon the estimation are used to characterize the distributions of the marginal propensity to consume across households for each of the four countries. The distributions are directly related to the presence of hand-to-mouth households. With the estimated distributions, monetary policy, operating through its effects on household income and asset market returns, will have a differential impact on individuals within and across countries.

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