University of Mannheim: Mannheim Institute for Financial Education (MIFE) founded

For many people, financial decisions are associated with great uncertainty. Long-term trends such as demographic change and digitization have far-reaching effects on retirement provision, savings behavior, interest rates and financing conditions. Unforeseen events such as the current corona pandemic are increasing the pressure. How do people deal with these challenges? What do you know about finances and how does this influence your savings and consumption decisions? How can financial literacy support the development of financial skills?

The newly founded Mannheim Institute for Financial Education (MIFE) has set itself the task of comprehensively researching and answering these and other questions on the subject of financial education . It is a joint initiative of the University of Mannheim and the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) and is based on the expertise of researchers from various disciplines from both institutions. The institute is also closely networked with thematically relevant persons and institutions from science, politics and practice at home and abroad.

Inaugural
conference at the end of November 2021, the digital MIFE founding conference with the institute directors Prof. Dr. Carmela Aprea (University of Mannheim) and Prof. Dr. Tabea Bucher-Koenen (ZEW and University of Mannheim) as well as many other international business experts. At the conference, top-class keynote speakers and renowned researchers exchanged findings on key issues in financial education. The highlights of the event were the lectures by Prof. Annamaria Lusardi from the George Washington University School of Business in the USA, Prof. David Leiser from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and Prof. Claudia Buch, Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

The Deutsche Bundesbank Young Talent Research Award for Financial Literacy was also presented for the first time. The prize, endowed with 5,000 euros, went to Sarah Reiter from the Ifo Institute and Awais Malik from the TU Dresden.