The preferred risk habitat hypothesis, introduced here, is that individual investors select stocks with volatilities … commensurate with their risk aversion; more risk-averse individuals pick lower-volatility stocks. The investors' portfolio … stocks are sold they are replaced by stocks of similar volatilities, and the more risk averse customers indeed hold less …

generates two main predictions: long-run unemployment increases with (i) a fall in long-run productivity growth and (ii) a rise … in the variance of productivity growth. Evidence based on U.S. time series and on an international panel strongly … supports these predictions. The empirical specifications featuring the variance of productivity growth can account for two U …