Abstract …is “should I buy any?”. Under Bayesian portfolio theory, ongoing zero weights in cryptocurrency are surprisingly difficult to generate. With 10 years of prior data, equity investors would need very pessimistic priors on mean returns to never buy cryptocurrency: −10.6 percent per month for Bitcoin, and −19.6 percent for a diversified cryptocurrency portfolio. Most priors that involve never purchasing cryptocurrency imply shorting it. Optimal weights are generally small, non-trivial (1–5 percent magnitude), frequently positive, and smooth. The certainty equivalent gains from cryptocurrency are comparable to international diversification and prominent anomaly portfolios. Costs (storage and fees) would need to exceed 21–39 percent annually to deter trading.

This study examines the empirical relation between football players’ wage income and financial development at the individual level. Using a large panel dataset of 237,631 football players from 153 countries from 2010 to 2020 and the International Monetary Fund's Financial Development Indices, we show that financial development significantly raises players’ wages. Players’ wages increase by 25.77% as the Financial Development Index rises by one standard deviation. Our main findings are robust to using subindices of financial development and instrumental variable regressions. We further point out that football players of low capability, with low wages, and who play for low-reputation clubs benefit more from financial development.