Households consistently invest less in equities and bonds than predicted by economic theory. We explain this from a behavioral economics perspective and distributional analysis using rich US survey microdata. We find that higher investor self-confidence in her financial abilities and financial literacy jointly increase the probability of investing in equities. Conditional on participation, confidence in the macroeconomy additionally...

Research background: In the distributive analysis, the constant relative inequality aversion utility function is a standard tool for ethical judgements of income distributions. The sole parameter ε of this function expresses a society’s aversion to inequality. However, the profession has not committed to the range of ε. When assessing inequality and other welfare characteristics, analysts assume an arbitrary level of ε, common...

This work briefly discusses the nexuses between digital technology development and adoption across societies, and its potential impact on overall welfare through women’s economic empowerment. In the first section it sets out the context and background. Next, Section 2 demonstrates the state of access to and the use of digital technologies across the world. Section 3 intends to trace the causal links and channels of digital technologies'...