Business school education, motivation, and young adults' stock market participation☆

In this paper, we examine whether business school education increases students’ stock market participation. We use unique stock ownership data of students from a business school in Sweden. We find a significant increase in stock ownership during and after their studies at the school compared to before entering the school. The marginal effects are 3.8% for the first two years of the core curriculum, 4.4% for the specialisation year, and 4.3% for the three years following graduation. The positive effect of business education on stock market participation is mainly driven by students interested in accounting or finance subjects, and the effect is more pronounced for females than for male students.