This report provides the first results of the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for Austria. The HFCS covers households’ real assets, financial assets and debt, thereby for the first time allowing an analysis of Austrian households’ net wealth. The rich data on which...

Households, financial intermediaries and ultimately even businesses all rely on savings deposits. On the one hand, savings deposits constitute a central pillar of precautionary saving; they play an important role in individual saving for old age and provide a financial buffer against unexpected...

The ECB recently published the first results of the euro area Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and a report on the methodologies applied (ECB, 2013a and 2013b). The fact that the HFCS results vary considerably across the euro area gives rise to questions regarding their...

In Austria, the share of foreign currency mortgages in total household debt has been increasing since the late 1990s. Today about one-third of household credit debt is denominated in foreign currency, mostly in Swiss francs. A major issue with regard to the resulting implications for financial...

Economic Policy under Uncertainty maintains that the question of truth and accountability has not received particular attention in the literature on economic methodology. It goes on to argue that pragmatic theories relate concepts of truth to the beliefs, thoughts and intentional actions of...