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2014
Konsumentensouveränität im Bereich privater Altersvorsorge: Informationen und Institutionen
2014
From Information to Informed Decision: Five Empirical Essays on Saving and Old-Age Provision
2013
Fehlende Ressourcen oder Diskriminierung? Ethnische Ungleichheit beim Zugang zu Ausbildungsplätzen im dualen System
2013
Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Demographische und soziale Konsequenzen unilateralen Scheidungsrechts
2011
Financial Literacy, Cognitive Abilities, and Long-term Decision Making - Five Essays on Individual Behavior
2009
Measuring, Explaining and Adjusting for Cross-Country Differences in Unit Nonresponse: What Can Process Data Contribute?
Cross-border commuting and consuming: An empirical investigation
This paper analyses empirically how cross-border consumption varies across product and services categories and across household characteristics. It focuses on the part of crossbordersales that arise due to work-related cross-border crossings; it analyses the crossborder consumption behaviour of cross-border commuter households residing in Belgium, France and Germany and working in Luxembourg. In total, it is estimated that these households spend EUR925 million per annum in Luxembourg, reflecting about 17
2014
Household Risk Management and Actual Mortgage Choice in the Euro Area
Mortgages constitute the largest part of household debt. An essential choice when taking out a mortgage is between fixed-interest-rate mortgages (FRMs) and adjustable-interest-rate mortgages (ARMs). However, so far, no comprehensive cross-country study has analyzed what determines household demand for mortgage types, a task that this paper takes up using new data for the euro area. Our results support the hypothesis of Campbell and Cocco (2003) that the decision is best described as one of household risk management: income volatlity reduces the take-out of ARMs, while increasing duration and relative size of the mortgages increase it. Controlling for other supply factors through country fixed effects, loan pricing also matters, as expected, with ARMs becoming more attractive when yield spreads rise. The paper also conducts a simulation exercise to identify how theeasing of monetary policy during the financial crisis affected mortgage holders. It shows that the resulting reduction in mortgage rates produced a substantial decline in debt burdens among mortgage-holding households, especially in countries where households have higher debt burdens and a larger share of ARMs, as well as for some disadvantaged groups of households, such as those with low income.
2014