A fund's performance is usually compared to the performance of an index or other funds. If a fund trails the benchmark, the fund manager is often replaced. We argue that this may lead to excessive risk-taking if fund managers differ in ability and have the opportunity to take excessive risk. To...

Many initiatives worldwide aim at improving financial literacy through targeted education programs, yet there is little evidence regarding their effectiveness. We examine the impact of a short financial education program on teenagers in German high schools. Our findings reveal that the training...

We consider an alternative modelling approach to the mainstream DSGE paradigm, namely basically a Dynamic Stochastic General Disequilibrium model of continuous adjustment processes on interacting real and financial markets. We introduce heterogeneous capital gain expectations (chartists and...

It has been argued that rare economic disasters can explain most asset pricing puzzles. If this is the case, perceived risk associated with a disaster in stock markets should be revealed in household portfolios. That is, the framework that solves these pricing puzzles should also generate...

We provide theoretical and empirical arguments in favor of a concave shape for the security market line, or a diminishing marginal premium for market risk. In capital market equilibrium with binding portfolio restrictions, different investors generally hold different sets of risky securities....

What determines risk-bearing capacity and the amount of leverage in financial markets? Using unique archival data on collateralized lending, we show that personal experience can affect individual risk-taking and aggregate leverage. When an investor syndicate speculating in Amsterdam in 1772 went...

Im Zuge der deutschen Wiedervereinigung wurden die formalen Institutionen in West- und Ostdeutschland schnell angeglichen. Dies galt insbesondere auch für die Kapitelmärkte. Nach Einrichtung eines Wertpapierdepots konnten nun auch Ostdeutsche risikobehaftete Wertpapiere unterschiedlichster Art...

Using life-history survey data from eleven European countries, we investigate whether childhood conditions, such as socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities and health problems influence portfolio choice and risk attitudes later in life. After controlling for the corresponding conditions in...