How financial literacy effect financial attitudes under crisis conditions

Abstract

Purpose- Since 2018 Q3, economic conditions in Turkey have showed a drastic change (The World Bank, 2019).This situation has made Turkish residents to take serious financial decisions and changed their attitudes and perceptions according to their financial situations. In this study, relationship with different financial perceptions/attitudes and financial literacy is aimed to investigate. Methodology- In line with the research purpose, data collected from 152 Turkish residents in order to measure their financial literacy and understand financial attitudes. OECD’s Financial Literacy Questionnaire is used as the data collection tool for financial literacy (OECD, 2018) and TEPAV’s (The Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey) Welfare Monitoring Survey Questionnaire is used for measuring effects of current economic crisis on financial perspectives and attitudes. Findings- In line with the purpose of the research, frequency, and factor and correlation analysis was performed. Overall financial literacy score of total group and characteristics of well-performed group are consistent with OECD’s the latest published results for Turkey. When the level of financial literacy is broken down according to demographic characteristics, the best performed group in terms of financial literacy is generally male, single, middle-age group, with a high degree of education, income and socio-economic status. In addition to general investigation of financial literacy, six different crisis-affected groups are defined via factor analysis according to their attitudes and perceptions under crisis conditions. It is seemed that different groups have different financial literacy scores and attitudes under current economic conditions. Conclusion- According to main finding of the study, higher scores of literacy bring economic well-being. Residents with higher financial literacy scores are not much troubled by the crisis. Most of them are worried only with the domestic economic environment. In both domestic and foreign literature, there are many studies on financial literacy. On the other hand, there is no academic research showing the connection between the financial attitudes and viewpoints of Turkish citizens under crisis conditions with their financial literacy. In this context, the study's contribution to literature is evaluated.