This paper uses individual-level data linking stock investments to work performance to examine how changes in stock market wealth affect worker output. Exploiting large return variations over time and across investors, we document a 10% increase in monthly stock investment returns is associated...

U.S. stock volatility is 33 percent lower during wartime and periods of conflict. This is true even for World Wars I and II, which would seemingly increase uncertainty. In a seminal paper, Schwert (1989) identified the "war puzzle" as one of the most surprising facts from two centuries of stock...