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Saving in general and portfolio behaviour in particular remains a complicated and only partly understood issue even after decades of intensive and excellent research. A major difficulty is that saving and portfolio diversification is a forward-looking activity and involves household´ formation of expectations about future developments in an uncertain future. It is not only future income from labour and capital or the expected lifetime of the household members that has to be anticipated. The saving rate, especially that of households in each contry, is the result of a multitude of factor ranging from demographic characteristics to those influencing individual households in different ways. This study has tried to discuss some of those determinants affecting the diversification and saving behaviour of the households.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, INDIA

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