Financial illiteracy and mortgage refinancing decisions

We analyze the effect of an exogenous shock to the Italian mortgage market, where a reform has abolished prepayment fees and simplified mortgage refinancing, making it a virtually cost-free decision for households. This law, along with the considerable drop in market interest rates, has generated important gains for fixed-rate borrowers, which we quantify at up to 15% of the principal balance. Nevertheless, only about 13% of borrowers have locked in this opportunity. We study the relationship between this sluggish behavior and their level of financial literacy.