Low Level Of Financial Literacy Research Articles

Saving for Tomorrow: Does the Level of Financial Literacy in the South African Working Class Matter?

Financial literacy has been identified in previous studies as an area that has not been researched extensively in South Africa. This is particularly true for the working class of black South Africans, who have been previously disadvantaged and were excluded from the mainstream economy and financial services under the apartheid regime. Lower savings and over-indebtedness in this group can be attributed to lower levels of financial literacy. The aim of this study is to examine financial literacy of black South Africans with a commerce tertiary qualification working in Pretoria and Johannesburg, based on descriptive research and structured questionnaires. In total, 171 participants who work in different sectors of the economy and who live in Gauteng were surveyed. The study found that although people with a commerce tertiary qualification are more financially literate than those with non-commerce tertiary qualification, black South Africans nevertheless are less financially literate than their coloured, Indian and white counterparts. Additionally, financial literacy is a significant predictor of individuals’ saving habits.

Unexpected windfalls, education, and mental health: evidence from lottery winners in Germany

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the causal impact of large unexpected windfalls on individual mental health, physical health, as well as health behaviors. I use a large individual-level panel data set of lottery winners from Germany between the years 2000 and 2011 and observe lottery winners before and after winning a large lottery prize. Mental health declines immediately after winning a large lottery prize for individuals with low education and low levels of financial literacy. While these individuals report being happier after winning the lottery, evidence from commonly used SF-12 measures of mental health indicates that winners with low education experience increased role limitations due to emotional problems, are more anxious, and have less energy after their win. The impact on various measures of mental health is highly robust, statistically significant, economically significant, and persists for up to two years after the win. Unexpected windfalls have no impact on the mental health of individuals with high education or high financial literacy. Winning the lottery has no impact on individuals’ health behaviors such as smoking or alcohol consumption, and it has no impact on doctor visits, hospital stays, or illness-related work absences regardless of education level.

Spending habits and financial literacy based on gender on employees

The aim of the study was to investigate the financial behavior of employees regarding financial literacy and spending habits based on gender. The cluster sampling was used in this study and 60 employees consist of 30 male and 30 females were chosen and the analytical method used is different test of independent sample t-test for normally distributed data, while Mann-Whitney test for distributed data is not normal. The result showed that financial literacy behavior and spending habits between male and female employees were not different. Male and female employees had low level of financial literacy and they had tight spending habits the study also found that male and female employees did not have appropriate knowledge to manage their financial especially in managing investment and loan. This result in increasingly tight spending which caused they still have to deal with the monthly instalment payment in the long run.

A Predictive Model for Financial Literacy among the Educated Youth in Kerala, India

ABSTRACTThe economic importance of financial literacy among individuals necessitates policy intervention. Estimation of financial literacy is a prerequisite for strategies to improve financial literacy. This paper, using data collected from the educated young adults in Kerala, the most literate state in India, builds a predictive model for financial literacy employing logistic regression. The study reveals the low level of financial literacy in the state. The model points to the significance of gender, age, religion, discipline of study, occupation, and personal income as determinants of financial literacy. The findings have implications for policies aimed at improving the financial literacy of young adults in India.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AS A SUBJECT OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF BUSINESS PERSONNEL

The main activities of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation) on assistance to development professional and business education proceeding from one of strategic objectives of social and economic development of the Russian Federation – development of business activity and tasks of strengthening of personnel and enterprise potential are presented in article. Authors expose shortcomings of the existing system of formation of enterprise shots and define the major problems and ways of their overcoming. Regulations on need of creation of educational clusters are formulated: schools – SPO – higher education institutions, their transfer to innovative technologies of training for business. Ways of development of interaction of the state, business, public organizations and educational institutions when training for business activity are offered. The special place in this interaction and in activity of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation is allocated to financial education of subjects of small and average business in view of the low level of financial literacy of businessmen and to his lag on value from average indicators of the countries of OECD. The question of an important component of social responsibility of business – his interaction with the educational organizations, expansion and activization of participation of representatives of business community in educational process, in grant programs, in the operating bodies, etc. is brought up. The opinion on need of formation of uniform educational system for beginners and the acting businessmen is expressed, tasks of her creation are set and possible ways of their solution are proposed. Authors have offered the concrete directions of strengthening of influence of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on processes of training of specialists (participation in formation of the state order for training of specialists taking into account the prospects of development of regional economies, development of dual and network training, development of the competences necessary for the sphere of business, and the programs allowing to form successfully them) and measures for their realization.

Incentivized Time Preferences, Level of Education in a Household and Financial Literacy: Laboratory Evidence

This study investigates the impact of financial literacy, level of education in a household and gender differences on time preferences of students at a university in South Africa. The study relies on a convenient sample of (N=85, female=48%) pursuing a financial literacy course. The study uses a questionnaire, a financial literacy test and a simple binary choice experimental game that elicited individual time discount rate to gather data. Ten percent of the participants were paid (in South African rands) for their time preference choices by way of quota random sampling. Female university students’ individual time discount rate was found to be on average higher than that of their male counterparts, indicating that female university students are generally impatient, especially those with low levels of financial literacy. Our results (using a Negative Binomial Regression analysis and Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis) show that time preferences of university students aresignificantly influenced by highest level of education in the household. The OLS regression model shows that financial literacy, measured using financial literacy test, significantly influence time preferences for all subjects. The study concluded that patience levels among male university students increase as financial literacy increases. Gender, income, age and family size significantly influence time preferences of university students. Highest level of education in a household, financial literacy and gender differences have a bearing on individual time preferences.

Incentivized Time Preferences, Level of Education in a Household and Financial Literacy: Laboratory Evidence

This study investigates the impact of financial literacy, level of education in a household and gender differences on time preferences of students at a university in South Africa. The study relies on a convenient sample of (N=85, female=48%) pursuing a financial literacy course. The study uses a questionnaire, a financial literacy test and a simple binary choice experimental game that elicited individual time discount rate to gather data. Ten percent of the participants were paid (in South African rands) for their time preference choices by way of quota random sampling. Female university students’ individual time discount rate was found to be on average higher than that of their male counterparts, indicating that female university students are generally impatient, especially those with low levels of financial literacy. Our results (using a Negative Binomial Regression analysis and Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis) show that time preferences of university students aresignificantly influenced by highest level of education in the household. The OLS regression model shows that financial literacy, measured using financial literacy test, significantly influence time preferences for all subjects. The study concluded that patience levels among male university students increase as financial literacy increases. Gender, income, age and family size significantly influence time preferences of university students. Highest level of education in a household, financial literacy and gender differences have a bearing on individual time preferences.

Culture and financial literacy: Evidence from a within-country language border

We study the effect of culture on financial literacy by comparing secondary-school students along the German–French language border within Switzerland. We find that students in the French-speaking region have a lower level of financial literacy than students in the German-speaking region. The difference in financial literacy across the language groups is stronger for native students and monolingual students than for immigrant students and bilingual students. This supports the hypothesis that embedded cultural differences rather than unobserved heterogeneity in schooling are driving the effect. A mediation analysis suggests that the cultural divide in financial literacy is related to systematic differences in financial socialisation across the language groups. Students in the German speaking region are more likely to receive pocket money at an early age, and are more likely to have independent access to a bank account than students in the French speaking region.

On a Need-to-Know Basis: How the Distribution of Responsibility Between Couples Shapes Financial Literacy and Financial Outcomes

Many consumers suffer from low levels of financial literacy, and attempts to increase this dimension of consumer expertise via educational interventions are typically unsuccessful. We propose that many of these apparent deficits in literacy and learning may be caused by a cognitively efficient distribution of responsibility for knowledge and decision-making in different domains between relationship partners. New relationship partners adopt specialized domains of responsibility quickly and intuitively in a process guided more by circumstantial factors than by matching tasks with aptitudes (study 1). Cross-sectional data from consumers in long-term relationships provide evidence that distributions of responsibility for financial decision-making between partners may give rise to differences in financial literacy, such that the financial specialist develops expertise in this area while the non-specialist does not (study 3). This ever-growing gap in financial literacy is generally unrecognized by consumers (studies 2, 4), despite being linked to corresponding differences in both financial decision-making (studies 5, 6) and financial information search (study 6). Consumers seem to develop expertise on a “need to know” basis. We argue that offloading responsibility to a relationship partner may eliminate this need in the present, while simultaneously creating barriers to developing expertise if and when it is needed in the future.

Mitigating Consumptive Behavior By Enhancing Student’s Financial Literacy: Experiments Using Video Learning

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Personal Finance Education for Residents: A Qualitative Study of Resident Perspectives.

Personal finance has been linked to wellness and resiliency; however, the level of financial literacy among residents is low. Development of a personal finance curriculum could improve the financial well-being of trainees. The first step in this process is understanding residents' educational needs. The objective was to describe the financial knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of residents to inform the design of a personal finance curriculum. A qualitative approach using semistructured interviews was used to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of residents in the realm of personal finance. Twelve residents completed interviews: one male and one female resident from the first and third years of training in the specialties of emergency medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. Three themes were formulated and analyzed through the existing frameworks: 1) daily finances, 2) financial knowledge and experiences, and 3) approach to financial planning. Prominent subthemes included a lack of knowledge and desire for personal finance education, debt-related anxiety, and uncertainty where to find reliable financial advice. Residents report a low level of financial literacy and high interest in financial education. The framework provided in this study can inform the design of education interventions to promote financial wellness in trainees.

Effects of culture and financial literacy among Chinese-Americans on participating in financial services

The main contribution of this study is the theoretical development of the moderating effect of cultural-related variables such as generational status and gender in predicting attitudes toward paid professional service. Our analysis establishes that the cultural-related variables significantly affect the Chinese-American respondents’ attitude toward paid professional services. Our findings also highlight the substantial role of cultural background in determining financial literacy. We empirically examined the influence of financial literacy, risk attitude, gender role, and generational status of Chinese-American consumers on their adoption of paid financial services. Results reveal that Chinese-Americans with a low level of financial literacy reported a more positive attitude toward paid professional financial advisors than those who were more financially knowledgeable. In addition, we found that respondents who were risk-seeking reported a more positive attitude toward paid professional financial advisors than those who were risk-averse. In our conceptual model, we identified two particular moderators of interest: generation status and gender. We also found an interaction between Chinese-Americans’ level of financial literacy and their generational status. Moreover, we discovered that gender moderates the effect of consumers’ attitude toward paid professional financial advisors. These findings offer practical implication and guidance for financial service providers when they market and deliver services to this particular ethnic group and encourages researchers to treat immigrant diaspora as not being as monolithic as assumed in prior research.

Gender differences in financial socialization in the home—An exploratory study

AbstractRecent literature has stressed the need for research examining the causes of females in general having lower levels of financial literacy than males. This article uses social cognitive theory of gender development as a framework to propose differing financial socialization of children in the home by gender as a possible cause of gender differences later in life. Evidence is found of gender based differences in the financial socialization of eleven and twelve year olds. Findings include more frequent parent‐child discussions being correlated to more positive financial attitudes, but not to saving behaviour. Saving behaviour of children is influenced by attitudes to money along with the presence of parents when spending, which is subject to a same sex gender bias for girls, with large effect sizes. Girls are over 200% more likely to state they save some of their pocket money if their mother is present when they spend their pocket money, compared to having no parent present. This difference does not exist for male children. When a boy is with both parents when spending, they are 245% more likely to report saving some of their pocket money then when neither parent is present. Having a father present when spending does not yield significantly different results to when no parent is present. These findings of gender biased financial socialization in the home are important considerations for the design of school‐based financial literacy programmes. Specifically, these programmes should consider a goal of encouraging discussion and questioning gender based attitudes and roles in the home. They are also important findings in terms of going some way to explaining the existence of a gender difference in financial knowledge in adulthood.

Orientation and Perception of Educated Youth towards Investment Avenues: A Study in Delhi-NCR

A low level of financial literacy among the educated young population is reported not only in developing countries like India but also in the developed countries like Japan. The present study investigates the levels of financial knowledge among the educated youth from different domains and finds if there is any significant difference in this regard, along with other demographic variables like gender and family income. The study further investigates the risk perception of the sample population from various domains with respect to important investment avenues in the country. The aim is to study how the youth are likely to show their financial behaviour in the light of the levels of financial literacy they possess. For the purpose, primary data was collected using a validated tool. ANOVA was applied to get the associations. The results indicate majority of the youth possessing poor financial knowledge with significant difference across the domains. Gender and family income was not found to have a significant influence on the financial knowledge. Perception of instruments doesn't differ significantly across domains.

Impacts of Financial Literacy and Confidence on the Severity of Financial Hardship in Australia

Consumers in Australia and other developed countries are increasingly required to interact with providers of complex financial products and services, and to estimate, mitigate or absorb the risks that flow from their financial decisions. A range of debt-related problems in Australia have been attributed to low levels of financial literacy in the population. However, there has been limited research exploring the relationship between low financial literacy and the problem of financial hardship, where a consumer takes on payment obligations under a contract, but then becomes unable to meet them when they fall due. Drawing on a survey of Australians who recently experienced debt problems, this article examines the impact of financial literacy levels and levels of confidence in managing day-to-day spending on severity of financial hardship. The article also examines the impacts of financial literacy and confidence levels on the strategies employed to get by financially while in debt. The article shows that while there is no straightforward relationship between low financial literacy and severity of financial hardship, lower levels of financial literacy may reduce consumers’ ability to avoid some of the more serious consequences of default, particularly if coupled with overconfidence about their ability to manage spending.

THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL LITERACY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN SECURITIES MARKET

In this article financial literacy is considered as the most important factor of increase of activity of citizens in the securities market and, as a consequence, development of the Russian securities market. The data on the level of citizens’ involvement in the investment process in the organized securities market of the Russian Federation and the level of financial education of citizens as a whole are analyzed. The article considers the main problems hindering the effective development of the Russian securities market, as well as the problems of low level of financial literacy of the population and, as a consequence, investment activity in the Russian securities market. The authors suggest not only ways to solve the existing problems, but also consider existing measures to address them from the state.

Medicaid and Long-Term Care: Do Eligibility Rules Impact Asset Holdings?

Medicaid provides a critical source of insurance for long-term care, and individuals may strategically offload assets (typically to children) to meet the means-tested eligibility requirement. In this paper, we quantify the extent of such behavior using variation in the penalty for improper parent-to-child transfers induced by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. We estimate difference-in-differences models based on the hypothesis that only individuals with high levels of nursing home risk (high risk) will alter transfers because of the Act. We find that over a two-year horizon, high risk individuals reduced transfers to children on the extensive margin by 11 percent and that the average total amount of transfers decreased by $4,860. The results hold only for coupled respondents. We also conduct a triple-differences analysis to examine heterogeneity with financial literacy and find that even those with a low level of financial literacy responded to the penalty.

The study of the level of financial literacy of students of transport universities

The purpose of this study is to characterize the state of financial literacy of students of transport universities on the basis of analysis of the results of empirical data of social research. In the framework of applied research, a significant amount of experience in assessing financial literacy has been gained, but in the academic science, the research of this kind is not enough to form a generally accepted concept and a detailed theory. Because of the resulting contradiction, the authors had to search for new approaches to conducting the study of financial literacy and interpreting the results. The system, in particular - the structural and functional approach and the sociocultural approach were chosen as the main ones. These approaches are widely used for study of similar phenomena and already proved themselves in science. As a result of the comparative analysis of the all-Russian level of knowledge and skills in the field of financial literacy and the level of students in the economic and non-economic fields of study in transport universities, the hypothesis was proved that students of non-economic fields of study have a lower level of financial literacy compared to students in economic fields of study and all-Russian level. Therefore, it is required to develop programs of various content and complexity to increase the level of financial literacy for these groups.

Financial behavior, confidence, risk preferences and financial literacy of university students

AbstractThis study investigates determinants of financial behavior (FB) of university students at a university in South Africa. It examines whether financial behavior, confidence, time preferences, risk preferences and financial literacy perceptions of university students differ by financial literacy level. Data were gathered via a questionnaire that included personal information, FB, financial perceptions and financial knowledge responses as well as a multiple price list (MPL) risk preferences and time preferences experiment tasks. A convenient total sample of 191 students (females = 53%) participated in the study. A t-test analysis showed that FB, risk preferences, confidence levels, time preferences and financial literacy perceptions of university students significantly differed by financial literacy level. Our results show that university students with low financial literacy levels are more overconfident, risk loving and impatient; such FB is synonymous with major causes of financial crises across the...

ПРИКЛАДНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ДЛЯ УЛУЧШЕНИЯ КАЧЕСТВА ЖИЗНИ НА ПРИМЕРЕ МОНОГОРОДА ЮРГА КЕМЕРОВСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

The deteriorating economic situation caused by the economic crisis that began in 2014 with the imposition of sanctions against Russia from its Western «partners» has also affected the social and economic indicators of the Kemerovo region. Before 2016, real disposable incomes of citizens had been decreasing due to high inflation and a nominal wage cut. In 2017 the country started recovering from the crisis due to the so-called import substitution. However, the situation is still far from the pre-crisis level. Economic instability and the risk of depreciation of accumulated funds are forcing the residents of the Kemerovo region to increase the share of the saved income. The low level of financial literacy of the Kuzbass citizens leads to the fact that the population prefers to keep savings either at home or on a deposit account. This form of savings, although convenient and virtually risk-free, will neither save the accumulated funds from inflationary depreciation nor bring any significant income. The aim of the article is to study the issues of personal income investments as a factor in improving the quality of life of the residents of the Kemerovo Region using the example of the monotown of Yurga.