Geld ist keine Ware, sondern Kredit, also ein Zahlungsversprechen, und muss als paraökonomische Struktur im Kapitalismus der Gegenwart verstanden werden.
Wie sind die Transformationen des ...Kapitalismus und die exponentielle Vermehrung der globalen Geldmengen zu erklären? Die übliche Lehrmeinung, Geld sei eine besonders wertvolle Tauschware, vergleichbar mit einem Haus oder Automobil, beruht auf einem Missverständnis über den Charakter des Geldes. Tatsächlich ist Geld keine Ware, sondern ein Kredit – ein Zahlungsversprechen.
Der Kapitalismus der Gegenwart ist paradox: Einerseits hat das Geld fast alle gesellschaftlichen Sphären erobert und sie ökonomischen Verwertungslogiken unterworfen. Andererseits ist heute alles Geld Kredit, erschaffen von Banken per Tastendruck – und zwar unter Bedingungen, die selbst nicht mehr vollständig von ökonomischen Logiken geprägt sind. Diese paraökonomische Praxis des Kredits ist in einen euphorischen Zustand eingetreten, in dem immer mehr Kapital aus dem Nichts entsteht – gerade dadurch drohen permanent Krisen. Eine neue Theorie des Geldes ist dringend geboten.
This paper undertakes an assessment of a rapidly growing body of economic research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research, which casts financial knowledge as a form ...of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare, as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little) people know and identify the least financially savvy population subgroups. This is followed by an examination of the impact of financial literacy on economic decision making in the United States and elsewhere. While the literature is still young, conclusions may be drawn about the effects and consequences of financial illiteracy and what works to remedy these gaps. A final section offers thoughts on what remains to be learned if researchers are to better inform theoretical and empirical models as well as public policy.
This publication is intended for family service providers, Extension agents and specialists, educators, and other professionals in the Military Family Readiness System. It discusses general and ...military-specific information about saving and investing money. Written by Barbara O’Neill, Martie Gillen, and Kristen Jowers, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, January 2024.
Using 41 million observations on savings for the population of Denmark, we show that the effects of retirement savings policies on wealth accumulation depend on whether they change savings rates by ...active or passive choice. Subsidies for retirement accounts, which rely on individuals to take an action to raise savings, primarily induce individuals to shift assets from taxable accounts to retirement accounts. We estimate that each $1 of government expenditure on subsidies increases total saving by only 1 cent. In contrast, policies that raise retirement contributions if individuals take no action—such as automatic employer contributions to retirement accounts—increase wealth accumulation substantially. We estimate that approximately 15% of individuals are ‘‘active savers’’ who respond to tax subsidies primarily by shifting assets across accounts; 85% of individuals are ‘‘passive savers’’ who are unresponsive to subsidies but are instead heavily influenced by automatic contributions made on their behalf. Active savers tend to be wealthier and more financially sophisticated. We conclude that automatic contributions are more effective at increasing savings rates than subsidies for three reasons: (i) subsidies induce relatively few individuals to respond, (ii) they generate substantial crowd-out conditional on response, and (iii) they do not increase the savings of passive individuals, who are least prepared for retirement.
We have devised two special modules for De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Household Survey to measure financial literacy and study its relationship to stock market participation. We find that the majority ...of respondents display basic financial knowledge and have some grasp of concepts such as interest compounding, inflation, and the time value of money. However, very few go beyond these basic concepts; many respondents do not know the difference between bonds and stocks, the relationship between bond prices and interest rates, and the basics of risk diversification. Most importantly, we find that financial literacy affects financial decision-making: Those with low literacy are much less likely to invest in stocks.
Inequality, Leverage, and Crises Kumhof, Michael; Rancière, Romain; Winant, Pablo
The American economic review,
03/2015, Volume:
105, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The paper studies how high household leverage and crises can be caused by changes in the income distribution. Empirically, the periods 1920-1929 and 1983-2008 both exhibited a large increase in the ...income share of high-income households, a large increase in debt leverage of low-and middle-income households, and an eventual financial and real crisis. The paper presents a theoretical model where higher leverage and crises are the endogenous result of a growing income share of high-income households. The model matches the profiles of the income distribution, the debt-to-income ratio and crisis risk for the three decades preceding the Great Recession.
Languages differ widely in the ways they encode time. I test the hypothesis that the languages that grammatically associate the future and the present, foster future-oriented behavior. This ...prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language structure are merged with models of intertemporal choice. Empirically, I find that speakers of such languages: save more, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. This holds both across countries and within countries when comparing demographically similar native households. The evidence does not support the most obvious forms of common causation. I discuss implications for theories of intertemporal choice.
We investigate whether individual experiences of macroeconomic shocks affect financial risk taking, as often suggested for the generation that experienced the Great Depression. Using data from the ...Survey of Consumer Finances from 1960 to 2007, we find that individuals who have experienced low stock market returns throughout their lives so far report lower willingness to take financial risk, are less likely to participate in the stock market, invest a lower fraction of their liquid assets in stocks if they participate, and are more pessimistic about future stock returns. Those who have experienced low bond returns are less likely to own bonds. Results are estimated controlling for age, year effects, and household characteristics. More recent return experiences have stronger effects, particularly on younger people.
Using data from a field experiment in Kenya, we document that providing individuals with simple informal savings technologies can substantially increase investment in preventative health and reduce ...vulnerability to health shocks. Simply providing a safe place to keep money was sufficient to increase health savings by 66 percent. Adding an earmarking feature was only helpful when funds were put toward emergencies, or for individuals that are frequently taxed by friends and relatives. Group-based savings and credit schemes had very large effects.
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