IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jpenef/v14y2015i04p466-491_00.html

Credit counseling: a substitute for consumer financial literacy?

Author

Listed:
  • DISNEY, RICHARD
  • GATHERGOOD, JOHN
  • WEBER, JÖRG

Abstract

Is financial literacy a substitute or complement for financial advice? We analyze the decision by consumers to seek financial advice in the form of credit counseling. Credit counseling is an important component of the consumer credit sector for consumers facing debt problems. Our analysis accounts for the endogeneity of an individual's financial situation to financial literacy, and the endogeneity of financial literacy to exposure to credit counseling. Results show counseling substitutes for financial literacy. Individuals with better literacy are 60% less likely to use credit counseling. These results suggest that credit counseling provides a safety net for poor financial literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Disney, Richard & Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2015. "Credit counseling: a substitute for consumer financial literacy?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 466-491, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jpenef:v:14:y:2015:i:04:p:466-491_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1474747215000219/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marotta, Giuseppe, 2020. "Behind the success of dominated personal pension plans: sales force and financial literacy factors," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 532-547, October.
    2. Niszczota, Paweł & Abbas, Sami, 2023. "GPT has become financially literate: Insights from financial literacy tests of GPT and a preliminary test of how people use it as a source of advice," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    3. DELIS, Manthos & GALARIOTIS, Emilios & IOSIFIDI, Maria & MONNE, Jerome, 2023. "Poverty and seeking bank advice: Evidence from a survey experiment," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Loy Ellana & Wildman Karen & MacDonald Kirsten & Brimble Mark, 2021. "The Value of Financial Advice in a Crisis: A Multidisciplinary Literature Review," Financial Planning Research Journal, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 65-87.
    5. David Aristei & Manuela Gallo, 2021. "Financial Knowledge, Confidence, and Sustainable Financial Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Oscar A. Stolper & Andreas Walter, 2017. "Financial literacy, financial advice, and financial behavior," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 581-643, July.
    7. Andrzej Cwynar & Wiktor Cwynar & Mieczysław Kowerski & Kamil Filipek & Przemysław Szuba, 2020. "Debt literacy and debt advice-seeking behaviour among Facebook users: the role of social networks," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 1-33.
    8. Barthel, Anne-Christine & Lei, Shan, 2021. "Investment in financial literacy and financial advice-seeking: Substitutes or complements?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 385-396.
    9. Fang Zhao & Jie Sun & Raj Devasagayam & Gary Clendenen, 2018. "Effects of culture and financial literacy among Chinese-Americans on participating in financial services," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 62-75, March.
    10. Maria Gaia Soana & Doriana Cucinelli & Beatrice Ronchini, 2025. "Advisors for micro-entrepreneurs: is one as good as another in accessing alternative finance?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 989-1033, March.
    11. Galariotis, Emilios & Monne, Jerome, 2023. "Basic debt literacy and debt behavior," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Cruciani, Caterina & Gardenal, Gloria & Rigoni, Ugo, 2021. "Trust-formation processes in financial advisors: A structural equation model," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 185-199.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jpenef:v:14:y:2015:i:04:p:466-491_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/pef .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.