Thomas Y. Mathä

• PhD Economics
• Central Bank Luxembourg

This paper studies how peers' financial behavior affects individuals' own investment choices. To identify the peer effect, we exploit the composition of the Luxembourg population and use the differences in stock market participation across various immigrant groups to study the effect on stock market participation of natives. We find that stock mark...

This report presents the main results and underlying methodology of the 2021 wave of the Luxembourg Household Finance and Consumption Survey (LU-HFCS). From 2018 to 2021, there was a broad-based increase in gross and net household income, as well as in net wealth. This partly reflects the rapid increase in property prices, positive stock market dev...

We show that a substantial share of households contributes their own labour to the acquisition of their main residence. These contributions help households faced with credit constraints, since they reduce the need for external financing. We develop a simple theoretical model and show that own labour contributions decrease with the level of financia...

We use firm-level survey data from 25 EU countries to analyse how firms adjusted their labour costs (employment, wages, and hours) in response to shocks in the years 2008–13. We find that the pattern of adjustment is not much affected by the type of the shock, but differs according to the direction of the shock (positive or negative), its size, and...

The rate of homeownership in Luxembourg is close to the OECD average. However, strong house price increases, mainly driven by population growth and limited housing supply, reduce housing affordability, in particular for the young, and contribute to the net wealth gap between homeowners and renters. As in many OECD countries, housing is the main ass...

This report presents the main results and underlying methodology of the third wave of the Luxembourg Household Finance and Consumption Survey (LU-HFCS) and compares them to results obtained in the first and second wave in 2010 and 2014. This survey is conducted among private households resident in Luxembourg and is part of the Eurosystem Household...

We analyse the use of active labour market policy (ALMP) measures by Luxembourg firms during the years of economic and financial crisis (2008–2009) and the subsequent European sovereign debt crisis (2010–2013). About 34% of Luxembourg firms used ALMPs between 2008 and 2013. Economy-wide, the use of ALMPs increased along both the extensive margin (m...

Using firm-level data from a large-scale European survey among 20 countries, we analyse the determinants of firms using short-time work (STW). We show that firms are more likely to use STW in case of negative demand shocks. We show that STW schemes are more likely to be used by firms with high degrees of firm-specific human capital, high firing cos...

We analyse the use of short-time work (STW) by Luxembourg firms during the years of economic and financial crisis (2008–2009) and the subsequent European sovereign debt crisis (2010–2013). The economic and financial crisis saw a surge in the number of firms using short-time work. We find that the likelihood that a firm applied for or used short-tim...

Crossing institutional or regulatory boundaries often goes together with discontinuities, be it price, wage or indeed wealth discontinuities. This paper identifies substantial wealth differences between Luxembourg resident households and cross-border commuter households. The average (median) net wealth difference is estimated to be €367,000 (€129,0...

This report presents the methodology and main descriptive results of the second wave of the Cross-border Household Finance and Consumption Survey (XB-HFCS) conducted in 2014. The survey provides novel information on the economic and financial situation of households employed in Luxembourg but living in neighbouring countries (cross-border commuters...

Results from the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey reveal substantial variation in household net wealth across euro area countries that await explanation. This paper focuses on three main factors: i) homeownership, ii) housing value appreciation and iii) intergenerational transfers. We show that these three factors, in addition to...

This article contributes to our understanding of cross-border activity in general and the determinants of cross-border trade in particular by focusing on the part of cross-border sales that arise due to work-related cross-border crossings of households. We analyse empirically how crossborder consumption expenditures vary across product and services...

This article empirically analyses the link between market potential and regional wages in the enlarged EU. We contribute to the existing literature in several ways: (1) we analyse the link between market potential and wages for the EU27 and (2) deconstruct total market potential into several geographical components and analyse their respective cont...

Using the first wave of the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), a large micro-level data set on households’ balance sheets in fifteen euro-area countries, this paper explores how households allocate their assets. We derive stylized facts on asset participation as well as the portfolio shares of asset holdings and investigate...

Empirical evidence suggests that most firms operate in imperfectly competitive markets. We develop a search-matching model between wholesalers and retailers. Firms face search costs and form long-term relationships. Price bargain results in both wholesaler and retailer mark ups, which depend on firms' relative bargaining power. We simulate the gene...

This paper studies price level rigidity and inflation persistence for EU15 member states using data on more than 1500 HICP sub-indices. Services and HICP sub-indices subject to price regulation exhibit a higher degree of price rigidity, with less frequent but larger index changes and a stronger asymmetry between increases and decreases. For most co...

We analyse micro-level consumer price data in Luxembourg with a particular view on price change reversals and wage indexation. The median duration is roughly 8 months. On an average, price decreases are as large as price increases. With the exception of services, individual prices do not show signs of downward rigidity. Excluding price change rever...

This article analyses the degree of inflation persistence in the EU15 using disaggregate HICP price indices. The results, based on a nonparametric measure proposed by Marques (2004) suggest a very moderate degree of median and mean inflation persistence. The modified treatment of sales in the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices tends to reduce the...

This article analyses the bilateral commuting flows across bordering regions of four European Union countries. The results suggest that aggregate cross-border commuting increases as the asymmetries in income per capita and the unemployment rate increase. Commuting time or distance and language differences between the bordering regions impede cross-...

This paper analyses price differences of McDonald?s products in four different countries. I show that pricing at pricing points in different currencies may contribute to explaining deviations from the law of one price. Observing strictly equal prices is more probable if prices are at psychological and fractional pricing points in a common currency....

This chapter compares internationally the available survey evidence of firms' price setting behavior. It reports a number of remarkable similarities across countries. Firms typically operate in imperfectly competitive markets, where they have a low market share, face several competitors, and are primarily engaged in long-term relationships with the...

Theoretical research undertaken over the last decades showed that the nature of nominal rigidities plays a key role in determining the effects of different shocks on the economy. This research has made clear that a thorough understanding of the extent and causes of the sluggish adjustment of nominal prices is crucial to the design and conduct of mo...

This chapter summarizes the results of firms' pricing practices collected through surveys conducted by the national central banks of nine countries. The results suggest that the model of perfect competition with the law of one price is not the blueprint for euro area markets: markup pricing is the dominant practice adopted by firms in setting price...

Este artícuLo vueLve a anaLizar La reLación entre La integración regionaL y eL comercio utilizando eL marco que sugiere Yeats [1998 } para eL anáLisis de Los efectos de La integración europea. En este trabajo, determinamos qué industrias experimentaron Los mayores aumentos en La orientación hacia eL comercio regionaL durante tres etapas de La integ...

This paper re-examines the relation between regional integration and trade by using the framework suggested by Yeats [1998] to analyze the effects of European integration. We identify the industries that experienced the largest increases in regional trade orientation during three phases of European integration, and examine the simultaneous changes...

This paper synthesises the implications of recent statistical evidence regarding inflation persistence in the euro area. For aggregate data, the degree of inflation persistence appears to be very high for sample periods spanning multiple decades but falls dramatically once we allow for time variation in the mean level of inflation; furthermore, the...

Using individual supermarket prices, this article shows that, even for a narrowly defined geographical and highly integrated cross-border area, absolute deviations from the law of one price (LOP) rise, as distance increases and borders are crossed. Being inside the former Belgian-Luxembourg monetary association has the opposite effect. The latter r...

This study investigates the pricing behavior of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks, covering more than 11,000 firms. The results, consistent across countries, show that firms operate in monopolistically competitive markets, where prices are mostly set following markup rules and where p...

This study investigates the pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks, covering more than 11,000 firms. The results, robust across countries, show that firms operate in monopolistically competitive markets, where prices are mostly set following markup rules and where pric...

This paper analyses the degree of price rigidity and of inflation persistence across different product categories with particular focus on regulated prices and services for the individual EU15 countries, as well as for the EU15 and the euro area aggregates. We show that services and those HICP sub-indices considered being subject to price regulatio...

This article uses individual supermarket prices and analyses to what extent absolute deviations from the law of one price are attributable to transaction costs. The results indicate that absolute percentage price differences increase with distance, but at a decreasing rate. Similarly, crossing borders increases price deviations, while being inside...

This article uses individual supermarket prices and analyses to what extent absolute deviations from the law of one price are attributable to transaction costs. The results indicate that absolute percentage price differences increase with distance, but at a decreasing rate. Similarly, crossing borders increases price deviations, while being inside...

This study investigates the pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks. Overall, more than 11,000 firms participated in the survey. The results are very robust across countries. Firms operate in monopolistically competitive markets, where prices are mostly set following ma...

We analyze prices from four countries around the introduction of the euro. Prices of a good in two locations are more likely to be identical if prices are psychological and set in the same currency. These rounding effects are not important in explaining the size of price differences in the full sample however.

This paper investigates the transmission of monetary policy using data from a panel of Luxembourg firms. The results indicate that the sales accelerator may be at work. A very robust result is the negative effect of the user cost of capital on firms' investment ratio. Changes in user costs are significantly affected by changes in the monetary polic...