Characteristics play a similar role in describing returns in private firms as in public firms. This evidence suggests a causal effect of optimal investment underlying the role of characteristics, as private firms do not have stock prices to over- or under-react on. Common factor models largely describe the cross section of investment returns of both types of firms, suggesting that the common factors are likely aggregate risk factors. Finally, the cost of capital and firm valuations are similar across private and public firms.

The finance literature documents a relation between labor income and the cross section of stock returns. One possible explanation for this is the hedging decisions of investors with relative wealth concerns. This implies a negative risk premium associated with stock returns correlated with local undiversifiable wealth because investors are willing to pay more for stocks that help their hedging goals. We find evidence that is consistent with these regularities. In addition, we show that the effect varies across geographic areas depending on the size and variability of undiversifiable wealth, proxied by labor income.