This dissertation examines three interrelated questions about the patterns, causes, and consequences of mass-participatory financial activity in the United States during the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. The first chapter examines the economic geography of speculative investment during the mid-2000s housing bubble. Here I utilize Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to test hypotheses about the community-level correlates of non-occupant housing purchase rates across U.S. counties. The second chapter takes up the question of why household indebtedness in the U.S. doubled from 1989-2007? I assess the empirical implications of alternative theoretical accounts using household-level data from the Survey of Consumer Finances. The third chapter addresses social stratification within mass-participatory investment markets by analyzing racial disparities in timing of entrance into the housing bubble. I use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to assess the mechanisms that account for minorities' heightened likelihood of purchasing a house during the later years of the bubble. Together, the analyses contribute to sociological understandings of mass-participatory finance. They also draw new theoretical connections between the economic sociology of finance, stratification, urban sociology, and behavioral economics.
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