The affordability index of Italian households analyzes the factors influencing the households’ propensity to buy an house with a mortgage loan. In 2013, the index recorded a significant improvement returning to pre-crisis levels, due to the houses prices decrease and to the fall of interest...

In the area of financial education it is important to link training content to its function and receivers, and to realize a coherent and useful format.The topics of financial education have to be related to specific areas and situations and to welldefined needs. The trainers need to understand...

Establishing a European Banking Union offers clear opportunities: to break bank-fiscal interactions, national supervisory silos and home biases, to reduce fragmentation and improve single market, to stabilize the euro. Nonetheless it involves also risks related to the crisis management...

Italian households are suffering the crisis and retail banks should carefully consider the new scenario in order to develop appropriate strategies and customer relationships management techniques. A new Financial Vulnerability Index, based on different stress profiles and on the analysis of...

A sample of 1,087 Italian university students was surveyed to investigate their financial education and its determinants. Financial education of first-year and third-year business and non-business students was assessed using a 20-item test aimed at measuring both financial knowledge and...

Monetary policy actions taken over the past three years were key in preventing a financial meltdown. Empirical evidence suggests that central bank bond purchase programmes were effective in lowering bond yields and supporting economic activity. Nevertheless policymakers also need to bear in mind...

The presence of possible distortions caused by a prolonged period of low interest rates indicates that policymakers should raise interest rates as soon as macroeconomic conditions allow. Low interest rates are good for macroeconomic stability in the short run, but could harm long-run financial...

European Parliament, Council and Commission reached an agreement to undertake a review of the Eu budget, in order to redefine the general guidelines and priorities and enable the European Union to implement effective actions in long term decision