I examine how differences in the ability to identify profitable investment opportunities contribute to wealth inequality. I analyze a model of financial markets with investors heterogeneously informed about future returns. The unconditional wealth share distribution features a thick right-tail...

I study the dynamics of the wealth distribution and asset prices in a general equilibrium model. Agents face heterogeneous portfolio constraints that limit the shares of risky investments relative to wealth. The setup is motivated by empirical evidence that many households do not participate in...

Capital flight often amounts to a substantial proportion of GDP when developing countries face crises. This paper presents a portfolio choice model that relates capital flight to rate of return differentials, risk aversion, and three types of risk: financial risk, political risk, and policy...

We study the impact of politicians' asset allocation on their economic bill proposals. Using a novel database of comprehensive financial disclosures of Congress members in South Korea, we find that the Congress members with more real estate assets in their portfolios are less likely to propose...

This paper introduces a new long-run dataset based on archival data from historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances. The household-level data allow us to study the joint distributions of household income and wealth since 1949. We expose the central importance of portfolio composition...