Using a dedicated set of questions in the 2014 Luxembourg Household Finance and Consumption Survey (LU-HFCS), we show that a substantial share of households contributes their own labour to the acquisition of their main residence. These contributions help households faced with credit constraints,...

Using the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), a large micro-level dataset on households' wealth in fifteen euro area countries, this paper explores how households allocate their assets. We derive stylized facts on asset participation as well as levels of asset holdings and...

Using the first wave of the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), a large micro-level dataset on households’ balance sheets in 15 euro area countries, this paper explores how households allocate their assets. We derive stylised facts on asset participation as well as...

This paper studies how peers' financial behaviour affects individuals' own investment choices. To identify the peer effect, we exploit the unique composition of the Luxembourg population and use the differences in stock market participation across various immigrant groups to study how they...

This paper analyses empirically how cross-border consumption varies across product and services categories and across household characteristics. It focuses on the part of cross-border sales that arise due to work-related cross-border crossings; it analyses the cross-border consumption behaviour...

Crossing borders, be it international or regional, often go together with price, wage or indeed wealth discontinuities. This paper identifies substantial wealth differences between Luxembourg resident households and cross-border commuter households despite their similar incomes. The average...

Results from the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey reveal substantial variation in household net wealth across euro area countries that await explanation. This paper focuses on three main factors for the wealth accumulation process, i) homeownership, ii) housing value...

From the mid-1980s, meat consumption in Italy and the western world have stabilised and, in the face of a well-established food security, we have witnessed a changed sensitivity for ethical issues, such as animal welfare and environmental impacts of farms. The challenge of livestock production...

This study investigates the pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks. Overall, more than 11,000 firms participated in the survey. The results are very robust across countries. Firms operate in monopolistically...

This paper analyses Austrian data on (financial) wealth and income. The main focus lays on the distribution of these indicators. Using a decomposition procedure of the Gini Index first proposed by Lerman and Yitzhaki (1985), it is possible to recover the effect of specific forms of investments...