Excessive household borrowing has been identified as an important determinant of financial crises. Borrower-based macroprudential instruments have been proposed as a possible remedy. In Germany, two instruments have been available to macroprudential supervisors since 2017: a cap on the...

This study questions the popular stereotype that women are more risk averse than men in their investment decisions. The analysis is based on micro-level data from large-scale surveys of private households in five European countries. We enrich the conventional approach to examination of gender...

The paper investigates the motives of Private Equity (PE) investors to engage in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investing is made for the sake of poor redistribution of wealth. Second, PE firm invests because of prior...

This study investigates the importance of social norms for shaping women's and men's decision to participate in the stock market, aiming to disentangle the different channels playing a role in this decision. Gender role asymmetry is indicated by the country's rank in the gender equality index of...

This paper explores the relationship between risk attitude and asset diversification in household portfolios. We first examine the impact of manifested risk aversion on the total number of distinct assets held in a portfolio (naive diversification). The second part of the paper focuses on a more...

Eine möglichst breite Streuung der Geldanlagen gilt als eine wichtige Strategie der Risikominimierung bei Investitionsentscheidungen. Die Mehrzahl der Haushalte in Deutschland streut auch ihr Geldvermögen über mehrere Anlageformen. Ihr Anlageverhalten stimmt jedoch nur bedingt mit der von...

Immer mehr Menschen nehmen Kredite nicht mehr bei einer Bank oder einem Finanzdienstleister auf, sondern leihen sich über das Internet Geld von anderen Privatpersonen. Sie nutzen dazu sogenannte Internet-Kreditplattformen, die als Alternative zu traditionellen Kreditmärkten zunehmende...

This paper explores the relationship between self-declared risk aversion of private investors and their willingness to hold diversified portfolios of financial assets. The analysis is based on household survey data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) that provides a reliable measure of...