Luigi Guiso is Axa Professor of Household Finance at the Einaudi Institute for Monetary, Banking and Financial Studies in Rome. His path-breaking work has been published in the best international journals and recognized with international prizes such as the 2005 award of the Fondation Banque de France for Financial, Monetary and Banking Research (\"The Cost of Banking Regulation\", with Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales) and the 2002 World Financial Association \"Nasdaq Award\" for the best paper on capital formation: \"The Real Effects of Local Financial Development\", with Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales. He is a CEPR Research Fellow.