Assessing the Financial Capability (FC) of Academic Personnel in a Philippine Comprehensive University

Abstract

While a number of studies were conducted to establish the state of financial capability (FC) in several countries, relatively little research exists in a developing country such as the Philippines. This study is an attempt to assess the level of FC of a select group of academic personnel in a comprehensive university as influenced by factors such as knowledge and understanding, skills and competence, attitudes and confidence, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Data yielded by the questionnaire was treated in-depth through inferential statistics. Results indicate that knowledge, skills and attitudes are positively related to financial behavior. However, no significant relationship exists between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and financial behavior. Interestingly, results show that the academic personnel exhibited popular financial behavior which redounds to above average FC. Results of this exploratory study could serve as a powerful platform for policy proposal, evaluation and adoption on areas like social inclusion, increased financial literacy and financial program effectiveness.