However long it takes us to shake off the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant economic seizure, one very long-lasting impact could be, as this reporter puts it, the fact that "investors in their formative years have just discovered that stocks come with big risks attached." A study co-authored by business and economics professor Ulrike Malmendier found that investors who were young when they learned about poor equity performance tend to avoid stocks, while those who grew up in better times were less affected by downturns in the markets. And the effects aren't limited to young investors. In another study, Professor Malmendier and her colleagues found that CEOs who were young adults during the Great Depression were less likely to leverage up their firms than those who grew up in more solvent times.