Is financial literacy a substitute or complement for financial advice? In this paper we analyze the decision by consumers to seek financial advice in the form of credit counseling concerning their credit and debt. Credit counseling is an important component of the consumer credit sector for...

Using a unique administrative data set from a large German commercial bank, this paper aims to ascertain the role of financial advisors in individual portfolios. Following on the heels of the ongoing regulatory and political debate as to the merits of financial advice, we focus in this paper on...

We conduct a field experiment with clients of a German universal bank to explore the impact of peer information on sustainable retail investments. Our results show that information about peers' inclination towards sustainable investing raises the amount allocated to stock funds labeled...

We survey 231 undergraduate students to analyze how retail investors' characteristics influence their decision to use a robo-advisor. Characteristics such as the willingness to take risk, extraversion, and optimism are significant in univariate tests but the willingness to take risk and the...