Basic information on the organization, operation, and growth of the financial system helps the students and early career researchers to gain better insights and understanding of the subject. The purpose of this paper is to compile the concepts, terminologies, and definitions – used in the...

Informal risk sharing within social networks and formal financial contracts both enable households to manage risk. We find that financial contracting reduces participation in social networks. Specifically, increased crop insurance usage decreased local religious adherence and congregation...

Trust is an essential element of individuals' willingness to engage in economic activity such as investment. Because cultural institutions influence individuals' trust, I examine whether shocks to trust in a prominent cultural institution have crossover effects on households' investment...

The survey analyses the financial advisor-investor relationship in order to identify areas for improvement due to gaps in communication, limited knowledge and poor exchange of information.The 2020 Report investigates whether the financial advisor-investor relationship may lead to a higher...

The access to formal financial services in Mexico is particularly low. Access is also significantly unequal across income levels, gender, between rural and urban areas and across regions. SMEs access to bank credit is low, hampering firms’ ability to grow and innovate. The use of cash and...

Having access to credit is essential for households to address the volatility of their personal finances over time and for firms to fund their investments. Accessing financial services at affordable cost on the other hand, is crucial to ensure financial security of all economic units. Despite...

Securities Holdings Statistics (SHS), compiled by the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) have spurred research over the past decade. SHS provide high-quality security-by-security data on portfolios. SHS benefit from very high coverage across euro area investors, relying on harmonized...

Individuals’ access to finance is particularly low in Mexico. Widening access to finance would boost growth and inclusion. This paper uses microdata from the National Survey for Financial Inclusion to assess the drivers of and the barriers to people’s financial inclusion in Mexico. Results...

In this paper, we create machine learning (ML) models to forecast home equity credit risk for individuals using a real-world dataset and demonstrate methods to explain the output of these ML models to make them more accessible to the end-user. We analyze the explainability of these models for...

Considering the institutional factors of the German mutual fund market, we analyze equity fund holdings of German retail clients who received financial advice between 2005 and 2014 to investigate whether those investors overweight the bank-affiliated asset manager and if so, whether this...