Investment in risky assets and participation in the financial market : does financial literacy matter?

Our study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between financial literacy and households’ investments in risky assets. We estimate a structural equation model with data from the Panel on Household Finances of the German central bank. Our results show that although households’ net wealth is the dominant driver of investments in risky assets, financial literacy plays a remarkable role. Financial literacy has an indirectly positive influence on participation in the financial market. The higher the financial literacy, the lower is the risk aversion. The lower the risk aversion, the higher is the participation in the financial market

Investor Characteristics and their Impact on the Decision to use a Robo-advisor

We survey 231 undergraduate students to analyze how retail investors’ characteristics influence their decision to use a robo-advisor. Characteristics such as the willingness to take risk, extraversion, and optimism are significant in univariate tests but the willingness to take risk and the internal locus of control are significant in multivariate settings. Participants who use the robo-advisor invest more and are more likely to also invest on their own in both stocks and bonds. We also find statistically significant differences between participants who exclusively use the robo-advisor for investments in stocks and bonds and participants who use the robo-advisor and invest some money in stocks and bonds on their own

A transformation method to study the solvability of fully coupled FBSDEs

We present a new method for checking global solvability of fully coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), where all function parameters are Lipschitz continuous, the terminal condition is monotone and the diffusion coefficient of the forward part depends monotonically on z, the control process component of the backward part. We show that one can reduce, via a linear transformation, the FBSDE to an auxiliary FBSDE for which the Lipschitz constant of the forward diffusion coefficient w.r.t. z is smaller than the inverse of the Lipschitz constant of the terminal condition w.r.t. the forward component x. The latter condition allows to verify existence of a global solution by analyzing the space derivative of the decoupling field. We illustrate with several examples how the transformation method can be used for proving global solvability of FBSDEs

Thread cutting and data analysis using a vertical articulated robot

The objective of this work is to automate thread cutting of internal threads using an industrial robot. The system is designed to accommodate various sheet sizes based on the robot's working range. The robot controller records the data of axis 6 during the cutting process, which will be applied for process and quality analysis. This axis was utilised for the cutting process. An optical displacement sensor determines the accuracy of the moving axis. The robot's endlessly rotating axis 6 offers further advantages, including no additional drive for cutting, maximum flexibility, high automation, and a large working range of up to 800 ∙ 800 mm depending on the robot. The maximum torque derived from the cutting process was 3.52 Nm. The radial movement of the chuck was measured at ∆r = 0.27 mm, which was 60 times higher than the planned data

linking goal-directed and model-based behavior

In experimental psychology different experiments have been developed to assess goal–directed as compared to habitual control over instrumental decisions. Similar to animal studies selective devaluation procedures have been used. More recently sequential decision-making tasks have been designed to assess the degree of goal-directed vs. habitual choice behavior in terms of an influential computational theory of model-based compared to model-free behavioral control. As recently suggested, different measurements are thought to reflect the same construct. Yet, there has been no attempt to directly assess the construct validity of these different measurements. In the present study, we used a devaluation paradigm and a sequential decision-making task to address this question of construct validity in a sample of 18 healthy male human participants. Correlational analysis revealed a positive association between model-based choices during sequential decisions and goal-directed behavior after devaluation suggesting a single framework underlying both operationalizations and speaking in favor of construct validity of both measurement approaches. Up to now, this has been merely assumed but never been directly tested in humans

Un modèle de canal multi-trajets appliqué à la simulation rapide du lien UMTS

- Cet article propose une méthode de simulation simplifiée du lien radio. Son originalité consiste en la modélisation simplifiée du récepteur et du canal, qui reste très fidèle. Cette méthode de simulation rapide est très précise et le gain en complexité est important. L'exemple des services 12.2 et 64 kbps de l'UMTS FDD à 3 et 120 km/h pour les canaux du 3GPP montre très peu de différence entre les performances des simulateurs traditionnel et simplifié

The Iberian Peninsula in the Imperial and Post-Imperial Context

This paper investigates the way in which technical and normative knowledge relating to infrastructures, mobility and water management, which the Romans began developing in the republican period, was functionalized for the purpose of expanding the empire in the Iberian Peninsula, starting with the establishment of Roman provincial rule and continuing into the Islamic epoch. It also examines how that knowledge was entrenched in the individual Iberian provinces, and adapted to reflect specific local features. In addition to shedding light on how imperial concepts manifested themselves in the appropriation of space in specific contexts, the example of the Iberian Peninsula elucidates both how the knowledge in question was adapted to meet ‘regional-political’ objectives once the imperial frame of reference fell away and how it was ultimately restructured, modified and legitimized to reflect overriding religious considerations. The paper also provides examples indicating the degree to which antique concepts lent themselves to transformation while simultaneously representing both a potential and a challenge for any subsequent rulers

Do Mutual Fund Ratings Provide Valuable Information for Retail Investors? Empirical Evidence on Ratings Non-Persistence and the Risk of Mutual Fund Closure

Retail investors use information provided by mutual fund rating agencies to make investment decisions. Using hand-collected data on Morningstar’s mutual fund ratings we examine the rating migration and closure risk of mutual funds from 2005 to 2012. We differentiate between buy-and-hold investment strategies and dynamic investment strategies. To assess the information content of mutual fund ratings for buy-and-hold investment strategies, we determine the rating migration based on the first and the last mutual fund rating during two-, four-, six-, and eight-year horizons. With respect to dynamic investment strategies, we calculate the number of rating changes per fund during these time horizons on a monthly basis. We find that mutual fund rating persistence is low or even inexistent in particular during longer time periods. Only for lower-rated funds the rating appears to indicate higher risk of fund closure. In addition, mutual funds face a large number of up to 38 monthly rating changes in the eight-year window. Overall, due to the extensive rating migration and the high number of monthly rating changes, we conclude that retail investors barely benefit from using mutual fund ratings