Thomas Spycher
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Spycher
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Thomas
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thomas.spycher@unisg.ch

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Numeracy and the Quality of On-the-Job Decisions: Evidence from Loan Officers

2020-04 , Brown, Martin , Kirschenmann, Karolin , Spycher, Thomas

We examine how the numeracy level of employees influences the quality of their on-the-job decisions. Based on an administrative dataset of a retail bank we relate the performance of loan officers in a standardized math test to the accuracy of their credit assessments of small business borrowers. We find that loan officers with a high level of numeracy are more accurate in assessing the credit risk of borrowers. The effect is most pronounced during the pre-crisis credit boom period when it is arguably more difficult to pick out risky borrowers.

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Culture and Financial Literacy

2017-02-03 , Brown, Martin , Henchoz, Caroline , Spycher, Thomas

We study the effect of culture on financial literacy by comparing secondary-school students along the German-French language border within Switzerland. We find that students in the Frenchspeaking area have a lower level of financial literacy than students in the German-speaking area. The difference in financial literacy across the language groups is mainly observed for native students and less among bilingual or immigrant students. This supports the hypothesis that cultural differences rather than differences in school curricula or school quality are driving the observed effect. A mediation Analysis suggests that the cultural divide in financial literacy is mainly related to systematic differences in financial socialisation across the language groups. Students in the German speaking region are more likely to receive pocket money at an early age, more likely to have a bank account and are more likely to have independent access to a bank account.

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Spreading out: COVID-19 and the changing geography of consumption

2020-06-30 , Brown, Martin , Fengler, Matthias , Lalive, Rafael , Rohrkemper, Robert , Spycher, Thomas

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Die Rolle der Widerrufsfrist im Schweizer Konsumkreditmarkt

2018-05 , Brown, Martin , Spycher, Thomas

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