Essays on investments in financial markets

Abstract

This dissertation is about investment decisions of private investors with respect to different asset classes, macroeconomic influences and the economic development. Chapter 1 deals with the reactions of German private investors to monetary policy decisions by the European Central Bank (ECB), in particular with regard to trading in equities and bonds. Chapter 2 investigates the characteristics and investment decisions of German private investors in the trading of structured financial products. In Chapter 3, the results of two other studies on hedge ratios in foreign currency investments are reviewed with a longer dataset over the period 1975 to 2016 and supplemented by a differentiation according to the business cycle.