The asset ownership structure in financial markets worldwide is dominated by large institutional investors. Relative to households, institutional investors own a larger fraction of assets, have a more concentrated distribution of ownership, and have significant active and passive components. We...

We study the impact of foreign institutional investors on global capital allocation and welfare using novel firm-level international data. Using MSCI index inclusion as an exogenous shock to foreign ownership, we show that greater foreign ownership leads to more informative stock prices and this...

We study the impact of foreign institutional investors on price efficiency with firm-level international data. Using MSCI index inclusion and the U.S. Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act as exogenous shocks to foreign ownership, we show that greater foreign ownership increases stock...

Capital income inequality is large and growing fast, accounting for a significant portion of total income inequality. We study its growth in a general equilibrium portfolio choice model with endogenous information acquisition and heterogeneity across household sophistication and asset riskiness....

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...

We show that capital income inequality is large and growing fast, accounting for a significant portion of total income inequality. We study its determinants in a general equilibrium portfolio choice model with endogenous information acquisition and heterogeneity across household sophistication...

Unusual events trigger persistent spikes in uncertainty. Standard models cannot match these dynamic patterns. This paper presents a unified framework, motivated by the literature on inattention. Agents choose whether and how to prepare for different possible states of the world by collecting...

We identify a novel economic mechanism through which passive ownership positively affects informational efficiency in the cross-section of firms. Passive ownership lowers the cost of capital, encouraging firms to invest more aggressively in risky growth opportunities. The resultant higher cash...