Investor Sophistication and Capital Income Inequality
62 Pages Posted: 23 Jun 2014 Last revised: 27 Oct 2024
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Investor Sophistication and Capital Income Inequality
Investor Sophistication and Capital Income Inequality
Investor Sophistication and Capital Income Inequality
Investor Sophistication and Capital Income Inequality
Date Written: June 2014
Abstract
What contributes to the growing income inequality across U.S. households? We develop an information- based general equilibrium model that links capital income derived from financial assets to a level of investor sophistication. Our model implies income inequality between sophisticated and unsophisticated investors that is growing in investors' aggregate and relative sophistication in the market. We show that our model is quantitatively consistent with the data from the U.S. market. In addition, we provide supporting evidence for our mechanism using a unique set of cross-sectional and time-series predictions on asset ownership and stock turnover.
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