Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated and new regulations...

Verbraucherpolitische Maßnahmen müssen dort ansetzen, wo sich Verbraucher nicht selbst schützen können. Notwendige Bedingung für eine effektive Gestaltung verbraucherpolitischer Maßnahmen ist daher das Wissen um das tatsächliche Verhalten von Verbrauchern. Gerade im Bereich...

Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die allgemeinen und spezifisch staatlichen und verbraucherpolitischen Initiativen, für die das Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz (BMELV) im Bereich von Finanzdienstleistungen auf das Riester-Sparen bezogen (mit-)...

Die Wogen um die Riester-Rente gehen immer noch hoch. Eine Dekade nach Einführung der kapitalgedeckten Altersvorsorge stehen die Produktqualität und die Informationsgrundlagen für Verbraucherinnen und Verbraucher immer noch in der Kritik. Konstruktion und Umsetzung der Riester-Renten weisen...

Food labels are supposed to quickly inform consumers about the nutritional values of products. We provide evidence that in a system where labels are voluntary, they are systematically distorted. The probability of finding a label on a product of the category with the highest nutritional value is...

Food labels are supposed to quickly inform consumers about the nutritional values of products. We provide evidence that in a system where labels are voluntary, they are systematically distorted. The probability of finding a label on a product of the category with the highest nutritional value is...

The recent expansion of digital financial products leads to severe consumer protection issues such as fraud and scams. As these potentially decrease trust in digital services, especially in developing countries, avoiding victimization has become an important policy objective. In an online...

Smartphone app designers often use behavioral design to influence users, increase sales, and boost advertising revenue. Behavioral design relies on elements ranging from app appearance to black-box algorithms and personalization. It commonly exploits behavioral biases, such as the lack of...

The European Central Bank's interest rate hikes since July 2022 have been passed on to customers by banks on credit markets to a much greater extent than on deposit markets. As a result, banks' net interest margins have risen extraordinarily sharply. An analysis of the interest rate pass-through...

This lecture considers the case for consumer financial regulation in an environment where many households lack the knowledge to manage their financial affairs effectively. The lecture argues that financial ignorance is pervasive and unsurprising given the complexity of modern financial products,...