Government policy and ownership of equity securities.

摘要: Since World War II, direct stock ownership by households across the globe has largely been replaced indirect financial institutions. We argue that tax and retirement policies are among factors behind these changes. develop empirical measures of two incentives holding stocks inside tax-deferred plans, tax-free investment income smoothing benefit. Using long time-series from eight countries, we show fraction household decreases with benefits. This finding contributes to policy debates on effective taxation economics research long-term effects corporate finance asset prices.