This paper establishes a causal relation between an individual's decision of whether to own stocks and average stock market participation decision of the individual's community. We instrument for the average ownership of an individual's community with lagged average ownership of the states in...

Stock market populism- investment clubs and economic history -- Investment clubs as markets in microcosm -- Group composition & the business case for diversity -- Getting ahead versus getting along-decision making in investment clubs -- Reflections on investing in the 1990s -- Implications and...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that investor protection affects the demand for equity, but existing theories emphasize only the effect of investor protection on the supply of equity. We build a model showing that the demand for equity is important in explaining financial development. If the level...