Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/88718 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
SAFE Working Paper No. 2
Publisher: 
Goethe University Frankfurt, SAFE - Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe, Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
A setting in which customer-owned mutual companies converted to publicly listed firms created a plausibly exogenous shock to salience of stock ownership. We use this shock to identify the effect of stock ownership on political behavior. Using IV regressions, difference-in-differences analyses, and matching methods, we find the shock changed the way people vote in the affected areas, with the demutualizations being followed by a 1.7–2.7 percentage points increase in rightof- center vote share. Analyses of demutualizations that did not involve public listing of shares suggest that explanations based on wealth, liquidity, and tax-related incentives do not drive the results.
Subjects: 
Stock market participation
political behavior
salience
attention
JEL: 
D72
G11
P16
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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