I examine the financial fragility of German households during the second wave of COVID-19 infections in the winter of 2020/21 by analyzing the households' ability to come up with EUR 2,000 within one month. About one in three households reports being unable to cover an unexpected expense of EUR...

We examine the financial resilience of Austrian households, relating it to their experience of financial shocks earlier in life and to their financial literacy. We find that previous negative (positive) financial shocks are negatively (positively) related to financial resilience. Financial...

In this paper we investigate behavioral constraints to savings among smallholder farmers in rural Ethiopia. Increasing savings by overcoming such behavioral constraints has been documented to have positive effects on various outcomes such as health, education, and agricultural investments. We...

Im internationalen Vergleich verfügen die Deutschen über ein relativ hohes Finanzwissen. Allerdings bedeutet dies nicht, dass Finanzwissen universell verbreitet ist. Der Anteil der Befragten, die drei grundlegende Fragen zu Zins, Inflation und Risikodiversifikation beantworten können, liegt...

Women are less likely to correctly answer the "Big-3" financial literacy questions, and a substantial share of the gap reflects women's lower confidence. In our experiment, women are more likely to choose "do not know" or refuse to answer financial literacy questions. If these options are not...

Based on a rich panel of household data, we investigate the determinants of the use of consumer credit in Germany. We find that the usage frequency of an easily accessible, but relatively expensive source of consumer credit decreases with financial literacy but is unrelated to household income....

Based on a rich panel of household data, we investigate the determinants of the use of consumer credit in Germany. We find that the usage frequency of an easily accessible, but relatively expensive source of consumer credit decreases with financial literacy but is unrelated to household income....

Financial literacy affects wealth accumulation, and pension planning plays a key role in this relationship. In a large field experiment, we employ a digital pension aggregation tool to confront a treatment group with a simplified overview of their current pension claims across all pillars of the...

How to invest and decumulate wealth during retirement has far-reaching consequences for consumption during retirement. We conduct an online experiment among 2,500 individuals representative of the adult German population. First, we investigate the choice between phased withdrawal plans with...

We examine financial literacy in Germany and its relevance for financial well-being. Using data from the Panel on Household Finances collected in 2021, we show that about 62% of German households answer the Big Three financial literacy questions correctly. Those with lower education, who are out...