Financial literacy and financial behaviour: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

PurposeNumerous exploratory, conceptual and empirical enquiries on financial behaviour and literacy have been conducted in the areas of economics, finance, business and management. However, no attempt was made to present a comprehensive science mapping of the area so far. Hence, the study intends to elicit the trend in the research field through synthesis of knowledge structures.Design/methodology/approachBibliometric analysis in the field of financial literacy and financial behaviour was performed on a sample of 1,138 documents based on a scientific search strategy run on the Web of Science database for the period 1985–2020. Biblioshiny, which is a web-based application included in Bibliometrix package developed in R-language (Ariaa and Cuccurullo, 2017), was used for the study. With the help of automated workflow in the software, prominent journals, authors, countries, articles, themes were identified; and citation, co-citation and social network analysis were conducted.FindingsResults show that the themes of financial literacy and financial behaviour have evolved over a period of time as an interdisciplinary field. In the initial stages, researchers focused on demographic and socio-economic determinants, but gradually the field embraced topics like behavioural and psychological constructs influencing financial behaviour. Along with conceptual structure, this research reveals the intellectual and social structure of the domain. This study provides important insights on areas that need further investigation.Research limitations/implicationsThe current research is a bibliometric analysis and hence limitations related to such studies are applicable. For future researchers to derive a strong conceptual framework, a systematic review of literature would be helpful. Science mapping for this study is limited to the Web of Science database owing to its wider coverage of good quality journals, structured formats which are compatible with the Bibliometrix software.Practical implicationsThe current study provides important insights on financial literacy and financial behaviour and their inter-linkages. It highlights the most addressed issues in the area and leads towards the prospective areas for research. It informs the future researchers about the emergent themes, contexts and possibilities of collaborations in this area by revealing social and intellectual structure of the domain.Social implicationsThe paper can provide important insights for policy formulation in the areas of financial education and literacy.Originality/valueThere has been lot of conceptual and empirical work done in the past, across countries, spanning the disciplines such as economics, finance, psychology and consumer behaviour. A major contribution of this study is that it consolidates fragmented literature in the area, highlights significant sources, authors and documents, while exploring the relation between financial literacy and financial behaviour.