The reaction of money holders to the systematic seasonal changes in the level of transactions represents an interesting "experiment" for learning about the money demand function. An analysis of the seasonal fluctuations of the real quantity of money and several measures of transactions in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada reveals the following. First, Consumption Expenditures in Semidurables, Nondurables, and Services appears to be a good proxy for transactions in a money demand function, and superior to Gross Domestic Product or Consumption Expenditures. Second, the transactions elasticity of the demand for money is substantially lower than one.

This is an empirical study of the determinants of stock holdings using data from the US Survey of Consumer Finances from 1992 to 2001. There is a great heterogeneity in the way households form their portfolios. Stock ownership is positively correlated with various measures of wealth, age, retirement savings, and having sought financial advice. It is negatively correlated with holdings of alternative risky investments, such as investments in private businesses, and with the willingness to undertake non-financial investments in the future. While we can predict reasonably well who holds stocks, we have less predictive power about the share of stocks owned by those who hold positive amounts.

Personal projects, such as a private business or the purchase of a home, influence individuals portfolio choice. We conduct a theoretical analysis of this influence when financial assets are required to provide liquidity to personal projects. Due to this liquidity consideration, individuals behave in a more riskaverse fashion when there is a large penalty for discontinuing or underinvesting in the final stages of the projects. In addition, using data from the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that households that are saving to invest in their own businesses or in their own homes indeed have significantly safer financial portfolios.