Do More Economists Hold Stocks?

Abstract

A unique data set enables us to test the hypothesis that more economists than otherwise identical investors hold stocks due to informational advantages. We confirm that economists have a significantly higher probability of participating in the stock market than investors with any other education, even when controlling for several background characteristics. We make use of a large register-based panel data set containing detailed information on the educational attainments and various financial and socioeconomic variables. We model the stock market participation decision by the probit model. The results are shown to be highly robust to various assumptions, including unobserved individual heterogeneityInvestor education; Portfolio choice; Stock market participation