For tax purposes, it is not necessary for the IRS to know whether an indi- vidual owns stock, only whether he receives income from this stock. Thus, our measure of an individual’s stock ownership in a given year is based on whether an individual reported dividends on his federal tax return that year. This divi- dendmeasure of stock ownership captures all dividends fromstocks and taxable equity mutual funds. It does not include individuals who invest in stocks or eq- uity mutual funds only through nontaxable (., retirement) accounts. Thus, when we refer to equity market participation throughout the paper, we are specifically referring to stock or equity mutual.
