In this survey, we review the voluminous body of literature on the measurement and the determinants of financial literacy. Wherever possible, we supplement existing findings with recent descriptive evidence of German households' financial literacy levels based on the novel Panel on Household...

In this study, we investigate how two key dimensions of trust formation, i.e. interpersonal trust in the advisor (narrow-scope trust) and broader trust in the business context in which the advisor operates (broad-scope trust), impact households' overall trust in financial advice. To capture the...

Homophily — individuals' affinity for others like them — is a powerful principle which governs whose opinions they attend to. Using nearly 2,400 advisory meetings, we find that homophily has a significant positive impact on the likelihood of following financial advice. The increased...

With the introduction of short-form disclosure documents, financial regulation in the EU emphasizes the use of plain language to facilitate comprehensibility. We evaluate whether these documents and the accompanying plain language guidelines improve the readability of mandatory product...

Using US household panel data, we provide evidence of a strong negative association between consumer fraud victimization and individuals’ perception of their financial well-being. We show that this effect is homogenous among the population and mainly stems from victimization through...