The paper reviews the supply of different mortgage instruments to Italian households by means of data obtained from a survey conducted in 2007 by the Bank of Italy over more than 300 banks. The results document significant innovations in housing finance in the last five years: a greater variety...

This paper introduces a framework to jointly account for the affordability of the periodic repayment of the housing debt (income constraint) and of the initial deposit (budget constraint). An application to 2006-2012 micro-data on Italian households indicates that the improvement in the ability...

This paper depicts – from a variety of viewpoints – the degree of indebtedness and potential financial vulnerabilities of households across the Italian regions. Micro-data from several sources suggest that the financial situation of Italian households shows striking differences at...

Nowadays Italian borrowers can choose among a variety of mortgage contracts. Using a special Bank of Italy survey on 400 Italian banks over the period 2006-2013, we analyse the supply of ‘non-conventional' mortgages (loan-to-value ratio greater than 80 per cent, duration longer than 30 years...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza la dinamica e le caratteristiche delle obbligazioni bancarie detenute dalle famiglie italiane e presenta una stima del rendimento lordo a scadenza delle obbligazioni bancarie sottoscritte all'emissione. Dal 1950 la quota di tali attività nel portafoglio...

We identify two categories of potentially ‘bad investors’ in TLAC-eligible bonds for the purpose of bail-in, i.e. households and hedge funds. The exposure of households may create political economy problems for policy makers when they have to decide about bail-in, while holdings by hedge...

Since financial inclusion has become a policy target in many countries, it is crucial to measure it properly. The usual indexes of financial inclusion include inappropriate variables and do not take into account other relevant aspects, thus misrepresenting the phenomenon. In this paper, we focus...

In the 2008-09 school year the Bank of Italy and the Italian Ministry of Education started an experimental program to incorporate financial education into school curricula. This paper describes the experience since then. According to the program, teachers receive training from the Bank on...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza l'uso del contante in Italia e degli altri strumenti di pagamento presso i punti di vendita (POS) utilizzando i dati del campione italiano dell'indagine Study on the Use of Cash by Households (SUCH) condotta dalla BCE nel 2016. L'obiettivo dello studio era...

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, household consumption fell dramatically and the propensity to save rose to unprecedented levels. In this paper we investigate the drivers of households' behaviour in Italy from a macro and microeconomic perspective. At the aggregate level, we find...