We study how and to what extent private households are affected by the recent financial crisis and how their financial decisions are in uenced by this shock. Our analysis reveals that individuals with low levels of financial literacy are less likely to have invested in the stock market and thus...

Since about ¾ of all self-employed are not secured by a mandatory pension plan, the question arises to what extent old-age poverty could become a problem for them. Therefore, a detailed study of how the self-employed save for their retirement seems necessary. The SAVE panel of 2005-2008 offers...

This study aims at estimating the losses in old-age wealth and forfeited returns. The analysis is based on the German SAVE study in 2008. In comparison to a scenario without the crisis individuals on average lost 4.3% of their financial wealth. Considering only wealth in investment classes...