We explore the effects of mandatory third-party review of mortgage contracts on the terms, availability, and performance of mortgage credit. Our study is based on a legislative experiment in which the State of Illinois required 'high-risk' mortgage applicants acquiring or refinancing properties...

The exact cause of the massive defaults and foreclosures in the U.S. subprime mortgage market is still unclear. This paper investigates whether a particular aspect of borrowers' financial literacy - their numerical ability - may have played a role. We measure several aspects of financial...

In 2008, the Swedish property tax was reformed and a cap on yearly tax liabilities was introduced. A large fraction of owner occupied houses was subject to a substantial decrease in the tax. When the reform was announced, most analysts projected - in line with tax capitalization theory - that...

This paper lays out some of the basic concepts surrounding financial inclusion, including access to banking, digital payments and financial literacy, as well as markets for health insurance, crop insurance, agricultural credit, small firm finance, and microcredit/ microfinance. It goes on to...

Financial inclusion or access to financial services, is a major development goal for all nations across the globe. Financial inclusion does not concern only "access, but also the "use"" of financial services. This paper examines the loan taking behavior of individuals based on survey of 844...

Recent pension reforms have shifted a larger responsibility towards savers. Individuals therefore need better knowledge of the rules and incentives embedded in the pension system to adequately save and prepare for retirement. In this paper, we use a novel Swedish survey matched with high-quality...

The paper employs a survey among Austrian households to study ownership and purchase intentions of crypto-assets. About 1.5% of Austrians own crypto-assets and about 5% can be viewed as potential adopters. Owners, on average, have higher financial knowledge and are more risk-tolerant than...

Granting a third-party guarantee for a loan does not directly involve a financial transaction. Therefore, guarantors might not understand that they are taking on a liability, albeit contingent. We introduce literacy about guarantees as a novel and distinct aspect of financial literacy. For ten...

Individuals invest in Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG)-assets not only because of (higher) expected returns but also driven by ethical and social considerations. Less is known about ESG-conscious investor subjective beliefs about crypto-assets and how these compare to traditional assets....

Durante buena parte de la era previa a la globalización, desde la década de 1860 hasta la I Guerra Mundial, Estados Unidos mantuvo aranceles sorprendentemente elevados. Los historiadores que se ocupan del tema económico actual han sugerido que el proteccionismo de EE. UU. fue producto de una...