This paper presents the results from a survey on the attitudes toward reverse mortgages of homeowners aged 45 and over in the Netherlands. We find that there is substantial potential interest in reverse mortgages, especially for the purpose of being able to live more comfortably and not worry...

While financial knowledge is strongly positively related to household wealth, there is also considerable cross-sectional variation in both financial knowledge and net asset levels. To explore these patterns, we develop a calibrated stochastic life cycle model featuring endogenous financial...

In this paper, we undertake an assessment of the rapidly growing body of research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for...

In this paper, we undertake an assessment of the rapidly growing body of research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for...

This study contributes to the investigation of the macro-finance interface by assessing the economic content and risk based interpreta- tion of widely employed risk factors in the specification of empirical asset pricing models, i.e., Fama-French size and value, and Carhart momentum factors, as...

The recent financial crisis has highlighted the fragility of the US (and other countries') financial system under several respects. In this paper, the properties of a summary index of financial fragility, obtained by combining information conveyed by the "Agency", "Ted" and "BAA-AAA" spreads,...

In this paper we show how liquidity constraints shape Italian households' decisions with regard to supplying their labor. One way to neutralize binding liquidity constraints is by resorting to supplying additional labor, instead of reducing consumption patterns. We estimate whether this channel...

European studies highlight a widening of relative inequalities in general mortality by socioeconomic status from the 1970s to the 1990s. Few studies are available for Southern European countries; they show that these countries represent an exception to these trends. Available evidence on this...

This paper investigates the tension between regulation and financial education in explaining one of the major puzzles in international finance, that is the lack of international diversification. We show that both dimensions are relevant: higher investor’s financial education fosters...

We show how the age prole of earnings, retirement rules and retirement behavior are tightly linked through the general equilibrium of the economy. Generous Social Security benets nanced by large Social Security taxes discourage human capital accumulation. In Social Security systems where Social...