In this paper, we present two stylized models of the financial system. We make the case that in order to realize the potential of a well-functioning complete financial market, financial system designers and financial service providers will need to think about ways to deliver financial...

This paper assesses the case for promoting financial education in Asia. It argues that the benefits of investing in financial education can be substantial. Data are limited, but indicate low financial literacy scores for selected Asian countries. As economies develop, access to financial...

This paper discusses the status of financial inclusion, education, and literacy in Azerbaijan as well as measures to foster the development of SMEs, which currently have inadequate access to financial resources. The primary policy challenge faced by the government of Azerbaijan is defining its...

Informal eldercare is often supplied by family members, more so in Asia than in the West. Children and their parents as well as members of adjacent generations linked by marriage (in-laws) are modeled as self-interested agents offering or responding to material incentives. A first implication...

Financial inclusion plays an important role in giving households greater access to borrowing opportunities, which in turn can be used to improve human capital accumulation, socioeconomic status, and long-run economic development. One way to enhance households' access to and usage of the...

This paper argues that urbanization reshapes individual's risk preference by exerting self-selection and assimilation effects. Taking advantage of the unique hukou system in the People's Republic of China, we initiate a quasi-experiment method to elicit the two effects, employing the 2013-wave...

Using the 2011 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) database, we explore the heterogeneous impacts of social networks on informal financial inclusion for urban and rural households in the PRC. We find that social networks significantly increase the probability of households' participation in...

The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected economic activities. In emerging Asia, where small family businesses play central roles in their economies, previous studies found that the sector was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. However, little is known about how households have mitigated the...

We provide an analysis of the housing market and current housing policies in three developed countries: the United Kingdom (UK), Switzerland, and the United States (US). We focus on these three countries mainly due to the marked differences in their institutional settings. The UK is...

In this paper we develop an analytical framework using the household utility maximization approach to model stability conditions to avoid household debt overhang. Our theoretical framework suggests that household debt stability is a function of five factors, namely the rate of interest, period...