Abstract: I document that upside earnings opportunities predict stock market entry, and that separating favorable from adverse earnings variation reveals economically important differences that total variance conceals. I measure earnings distributions in historical Current Population Survey records and link them to subsequent portfolio transitions in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. At a given mean earnings growth and variance, a one-standard-deviation increase in upside composition predicts 1.6 percentage points more entry into stocks and mutual funds, nearly one fifth of the sample entry rate. The association extends to entry followed by ownership at two subsequent annual observations. A standard participation-cost model shows how favorable realizations can finance entry even at unchanged mean and variance. In an estimated life-cycle model, measured earnings dynamics strengthen the untargeted composition-entry relationship relative to pooled dynamics, mainly through differences in resources available to invest. A controlled illustration shows how anticipated earnings also change saving and subsequent entry.

Abstract: Using transaction-level data on 189,530 Chinese retail investors over the 2013–2016 boom and bust, we measure experience as counts of large realized gains and losses and examine how these counts relate to the disposition effect, the tendency to sell winners and hold losers. A two-standard-deviation increase in losing experience is associated with an increase in the winner–loser sale gap equal to about 23% of the gap at zero measured experience. The corresponding increase in winning experience is associated with a decline of about 21%. In calibrated simulations with selling rules that do not respond directly to experience, the mean loss-side interaction is negative or close to zero. We develop a memory model in which similarity-weighted recall guides selling. Realizing gains and losses changes the episodes reached by the ownership cue, providing a possible link between past outcomes and subsequent selling without changes in preferences.

Abstract: How does difficulty valuing a home affect its sale price and time on market? Using Beijing resale records, I measure valuation difficulty by asking-price deviations from a benchmark for nearby homes with similar observed characteristics. Among recorded sales, moving from the smallest to the largest deviation within a community and month is associated with about five percent longer selling time. More users save these listings online, yet the homes receive fewer in-person viewings. A search model provides an interpretation: less reliable information reduces risk-averse buyers' willingness to pay, while greater disagreement encourages sellers to wait for a high offer. The model also shows when disagreement weakens the effect of a small price cut on agreement. The paper connects valuation risk to the selling process: disagreement can lengthen the search for a buyer rather than simply raise the sale price, and more online attention need not lead to an easier sale.

Abstract: Do early labor markets leave a financial legacy beyond the earnings measured later in a career? I study women's own deposits and securities over 29 waves of the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers, using a consistent measure before and after marriage. Comparing childhood prefectures within predicted-entry cohorts, a one-standard-deviation weaker local market is associated with about 150,000 yen less in later personal financial assets, ten percent of the mean. Deposits account for almost all of the difference. A birth-cohort population defined independently of schooling preserves a positive relationship with mean conditions at ages 18, 20 and 22, equivalent to about 105,000 yen; the age-18 estimate is less precise. Favorable conditions over these ages also accompany more regular employment. Comparisons of assets and resources over common five-year age windows do not establish faster accumulation at equal income. The results connect early labor-market conditions to the financial assets women report as their own, measured consistently through marriage and career interruptions.

Abstract: An employer insurance mandate can introduce a new household payment for a dependent spouse while replacing contributions already paid by another worker. We study this distinction in Japan's 2016 expansion of employee social insurance using longitudinal data on married part-time women. Employer-size exposure and pension status are fixed before the 2012 announcement. From announcement to enforcement, the large-versus-small-firm gap in membership in the ¥1.06–1.29 million earnings band falls 21.1 percentage points more for dependent spouses than for workers already contributing directly. Separately reported earnings from all jobs yield a 15.4-point estimate. Documented nonenrolled employment at 20 or more weekly hours also declines differentially. The earnings pattern reverses an announcement-period increase; net changes from the earlier baseline are less precisely estimated. Together, the findings document how the timing and distribution of adjustment under an employer mandate differ with workers' pre-existing household insurance arrangements.

Abstract: Can protecting homeowners' school rights make their homes harder to trade? I study a Beijing reform that preserved the previous admission rules for eligible owners who kept their homes, while new buyers faced assignment across several schools. Linking enrollment notices to transactions, I compare winter-to-spring changes around January 2019 with earlier seasons. Counts that do not require reported prices imply 30–45 percent lower sales growth in formerly key-school communities relative to ordinary-school communities. Local comparisons remain negative but imprecise. Monthly counts diverge during the grace period; the cumulative gap narrows over 2019 without establishing permanently lost sales. Exact-price sales suggest relative price declines, while reported price ranges leave the full-sample response uncertain. A matching model explains why flexible prices need not preserve exchange when a sale changes the rights conveyed, and why portable protection can facilitate trade at other applicants' expense.

Abstract: Industrial employment can facilitate marriage through stable earnings while delaying household formation when jobs, housing, and residence are allocated together. We study this tension in China's Third Front using the 1982, 1990, and 2000 population censuses. In 1982, a 13.7-percentage-point increase in the registered heavy-industry share is associated with a 4.23-point larger gap in never-married rates between ages 20–24 and 30–34 inside designated provinces than elsewhere. Predetermined siting controls reduce the differential to 2.24 points. Retrospective first-marriage histories observed in 2000 yield a similar age profile, and education shares account for 15.5 percent of a comparable young–old gap. However, comparisons of pre-campaign and build-out cohorts do not yield a robust additional marriage shift inside Third Front provinces. The evidence documents a recurring association between industrial composition and young singlehood, rather than a causal effect of the construction campaign. It distinguishes a demographic pattern among residents of industrial places from an effect assigned to people exposed to a particular industrial policy.