This paper uses international panel data on 55 countries from 1995 to 2008, merging indicators of financial literacy with a large set of macroeconomic and institutional variables. Results show that there is substantial heterogeneity of financial and economic competence across countries, and that...

A growing body of literature shows that financial literacy affects household savings and investment choices. Less attention has, however, been devoted to its effect on debt behavior. This paper contributes to filling this gap by considering how financial literacy influences household attitudes...

There is ample empirical evidence documenting widespread financial illiteracy and limited pension knowledge. At the same time, the distribution of wealth is widely dispersed and many workers arrive on the verge of retirement with few or no personal assets. In this paper, we investigate the...

The ability of consumers to make informed financial decisions improves their ability to develop sound personal finance. This paper uses a panel dataset from Russia, an economy in which consumer loans grew at an astounding rate - from about US$10 billion in 2003 to over US$170 billion in 2008 -...

Using micro data on Japanese households, I provide an overview of the level of financial literacy in Japan, analyze the determinants of financial literacy and link financial literacy to retirement planning. Overall, the level of financial literacy is low in Japan. Surprisingly, many Japanese...

The OECD International Network on Financial Education has developed a questionnaire to undertake an international comparison of levels of financial literacy. This questionnaire takes into account knowledge, behaviours and attitudes related to personal finances, and seeks to identify similarities...

This study examines how cognitive changes associated with aging impact the financial decision making capability of older Americans. We find that a decrease in cognition is associated with a decrease in financial literacy. Decreases in episodic memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial ability...

Prior studies disagree regarding the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, especially those offered in the workplace. To explain such measurement differences in evaluation and outcomes, we employ a stochastic life cycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation to...

Savings accounts are owned by most households, but little is known about the performance of households' investments. We create a unique dataset by matching information on individual savings accounts from the DNB Household Survey with market data on account-specific interest rates and...

Based on a sample of university students, we provide field and laboratory evidence that a small scale training intervention has both a statistically and economically significant effect on subjective and objective assessments of financial knowledge. We show also that the intervention increases...