Using university admission cutoffs that generate exogenous variation in college-major choices, we provide causal evidence that enrollment in a business or economics program leads individuals to invest significantly more in the stock market, earn higher portfolio returns, and ultimately...

Wealthier households obtain higher returns on their investments than poorer ones. How should the tax system account for this return inequality? I study capital taxation in an economy in which return rates endogenously correlate with wealth. The leading example is a financial market, where the...

We match administrative panel data on portfolio choices with survey measures of financial literacy. We observe that, controlling for portfolio risk, most literate households experience 0.4% higher annual returns than least literate households. We then show that more literate households display...

We use unique data fromfinancial advisers' professional exam scores and combine it with other variables to create an index of financial sophistication. Using this index to explain long-term stock return expectations, we find that more sophisticated financial advisers tend to have lower return...

Returns to experience for U.S. workers have changed over the post-war period. This paper argues that a simple model goes a long way towards replicating these changes. The model features three well-known ingredients: (i) an aggregate production function with constant skill-biased technical change;...

We examine how a student’s major and the institution attended contribute to the labor market outcomes of young graduates. Administrative panel data that combine student transcripts with matched employer-employee records allow us to provide the first decomposition of premia into individual...

Using individual-level data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), we estimate the extra-returns to wealth earned by highly educated individuals (education premium). Importantly, we quantify the fraction of the premium due to the financial investments decisions, such as stock...