January 2017
Summary: In November 2016, Allianz, in collaboration with Director Annamaria Lusardi, surveyed a total of 10,000 (approximately 1,000 people in each country) in the western European countries of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to better understand their financial and risk literacy and financial decision making. The relationship between financial literacy and relevant financial outcomes (borrowing and investing behavior and planning and saving for retirement) is well documented in the academic literature. This current study goes further by adding questions relating to risk concepts. It also examines the extent to which people who have a good understanding of financial and risk concepts are also better at recognizing the right financial product for a specific financial need in real-life situations…