Abstract: | I show that investment in housing plays a crucial role in explainingthe patterns of cross-sectional variation in the compositionof wealth and the level of stockholdings observed in portfoliocomposition data. Due to investment in housing, younger andpoorer investors have limited financial wealth to invest instocks, which reduces the benefits of equity market participation.House price risk crowds out stockholdings, and this crowdingout effect is larger for low financial net-worth. In the modelas in the data leverage is positively correlated with stockholdings. |