Stock Market Participation, Work from Home, and Inequality

Lorenz Meister, Lukas Menkhoff and Carsten Schröder

No 2138, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Stock market participation among working household heads jumped upwards in 2020 – in Germany by about 25%. A major cause is the required use of work from home (WfH). We show this by adding WfH to a large set of explanatory variables. Moreover, we implement an instrumental variables estimation based on industry-specific levels of WfH-capacity. The transmission channels seem to work via increased available time and time flexibility. Moreover, we show that WfH makes the stock market accessible to a broader population, including lower income groups, which may contribute to lower income inequality in the future.

Keywords: Stock market participation; work from home; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 G11 G51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 p.
Date: 2025
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