We extend and test two models of asset pricing that feature status-seeking through accumulation of not only financial and real assets but also human capital. We use weak-identification robust tests to confront these models with U.S. aggregate data. Contrary to previous results, we find that the...

Demographic change belongs to the mega-trends of the 20th and the 21st century. The ongoing aging process in major industrialized countries gives rise to the relative scarcity of raw labor and the relative abundance of physical capital. Standard macroeconomic models suggest that this depresses...

We embed Max Weber (1958)'s spirit of capitalism (SOC) into an otherwise standard Lucas' tree asset pricing model, by assuming that economic agents care about their social status and that the latter is related to financial wealth. We show that, absent uncertainty, for a wide range of values for...

Rare disasters become increasingly important for understanding asset pricing, and the spirit of capitalism has been successful in explaining various issues in economic growth, savings behavior, and asset pricing. However, pervious studies don't reveal the connection of these two ideas. This...