Based on data from Sweden, the authors use a quasi-field experiment to examine the medium- and longer-term effects on financial behavior that result from the influence of and spatial proximity to financially literate neighbors.
Prof. Michael Haliassos has been holding the Chair of Macroeconomics and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt since 2004. He is IMFS Research Professor, Research Fellow at the London Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Founding Director of the CEPR Network on Household Finance and International Research Fellow of the Dutch Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement (Netspar). As an expert for household finance, consumer and investment behavior and financial literacy, he is also advisor to the European Central Bank on the Eurozone Survey of Household Finances and Consumption since its inception in 2006.
Thomas Jansson, Ph.D., is an associate in the monetary policy department of the Swedish central bank. Prof. Yigitcan Karabulut is an assistant professor in finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
The paper "Financial Literacy Externalities" appeared in the February 2020 Review of Financial Studies, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp. 950-989, and is also available as IMFS Working Paper No. 127 (PDF).