IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v89y2026ics1544612325025309.html

Financial literacy and community governance: Bridging the gap in public service provision

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Fei
  • Cheng, Chen

Abstract

With the advent of an aging society, financial literacy has become an important factor in enhancing individual social participation and governance capacity. Based on the research data of the China Aging Society Tracking Survey (CLASS) from 2016 to 2020 (conducted every two years), this study aims to explore the impact of financial literacy on community governance, particularly in bridging the gap in public service provision among different groups. The findings indicate that financial literacy significantly improves community governance levels and narrows the gap in public service provision between various social groups. Educational background plays a moderating role in the relationship between financial literacy and community governance, as well as in the connection between financial literacy and the disparity in public service provision among different societal groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Fei & Cheng, Chen, 2026. "Financial literacy and community governance: Bridging the gap in public service provision," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:89:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325025309
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.109281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325025309
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.109281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Omika Bhalla Saluja & Priyanka Singh & Harit Kumar, 2023. "Barriers and interventions on the way to empower women through financial inclusion: a 2 decades systematic review (2000–2020)," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Lyu, Jiayu & Li, Lu & Liu, Yuqi & Deng, Qian, 2025. "Promoting common prosperity: How do digital capability and financial literacy matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. repec:oap:ijaefa:v:15:y:2023:i:1:p:39-52:id:761 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ye, Xiang & Yue, Pengpeng, 2023. "Financial literacy and household energy efficiency: An analysis of credit market and supply chain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    5. Yang, Yanwu & Gong, Bing, 2025. "Digital financial inclusion and public service equalization," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Giuseppe Grossi & Daniela Argento, 2022. "The fate of accounting for public governance development," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(9), pages 272-303, August.
    7. Falak Khan & Muhammad Ayub Siddiqui & Salma Imtiaz, 2022. "Role of financial literacy in achieving financial inclusion: A review, synthesis and research agenda," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 2034236-203, December.
    8. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-11-2020-5001 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Carolina Guerini & Donato Masciandaro & Alessia Papini, 2024. "Literacy and Financial Education: Private Providers, Public Certification and Political Preferences," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 24223, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    10. Abiola Babajide & Evans Osabuohien & Patience Tunji-Olayeni & Hezekiah Falola & Lanre Amodu & Felicia Olokoyo & Folashade Adegboye & Benjamin Ehikioya, 2023. "Financial literacy, financial capabilities, and sustainable business model practice among small business owners in Nigeria," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 1670-1692, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vaishali Kamboj & Dipasha Sharma, 2025. "Mapping the landscape of digital financial inclusion and proposing integrative framework: trends, influential works, and future directions," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Zhai, Xin, 2025. "Rural collective property rights system reform, financial literacy, and rural household income," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    3. Pitthan, Francisco & De Witte, Kristof, 2024. "Do heuristics matter for financial literacy? The impact of better heuristics awareness to financial literacy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    4. Wang, Xinjian & Ding, Yihao & Dong, Qiang & Sun, Shuai & Chen, Zhixiao, 2025. "Impact of digital divide on household consumption: Role of mental health and happiness," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Kunxi Nie & Yueji Zhu, 2025. "Internet access, female’s non-farm employment, and income effects: insights from China," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, December.
    6. Wu, Yiming & Li, Yuxuan & Xiong, Lichun, 2025. "Policy coordination mechanism: Rural financial inclusion and public governance in developing countries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    7. Li, Qianqian & Zhao, Zhengtang & Chen, Tingting, 2024. "The effect of public pension insurance integration on income disparities between urban-rural households: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Koomson, Isaac & Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi & Smyth, Russell, 2025. "Financial literacy and clean energy adoption in South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    9. Wang, Pengcheng & Yang, Xuelin, 2024. "Social trust and household financial decision-making: An empirical study based on the usage of household financial technology," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Herron, Charles B. & Nilakantan, Rahul & Iyengar, Deepak & Richey, Robert Glenn & Rao, Shashank, 2026. "On social inequality, financial inclusion, and poverty at the bottom of the pyramid: Is financial equity enough?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    11. Ravees Hussain Bhat & Rahila Hafiz & Tanveer Ahmad Darzi, 2026. "Towards inclusive growth and prosperity: Does financial literacy bolster financial inclusion among persons with disabilities (PWDs) in India?," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 1-20, April.
    12. Li, Yu & Bai, Tianpeng & Sha, Ya & Xu, Zitong, 2025. "Concentration of supply chain, internal control, and corporate risk-taking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Yin, Zhichao & Wang, Rui & Wu, Xi, 2023. "Financial inclusion, natural disasters and energy poverty: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. Zheng, Xiaxuan & Chen, Yueyan, 2024. "Does supply-chain-finance help to improve the efficiency of outward foreign direct investment?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Wu, Keyu & Zheng, Kaixin, 2025. "Tax incentives, supply chain spillovers, and enterprise technological innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Yang, Wen & Zhao, Keqing, 2024. "Cross-border capital flows and low-carbon economic development: Examining the impact of foreign shareholding," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    17. Zeng, Yuan & Yang, Yusen & Wang, Chun & Zou, Jianke, 2025. "Exploring the digital divide–poverty link: Roles of education and family dependency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PC).
    18. Michael Ayikwei Quarshie & Shakeb Akhtar & Donkor Nawaah, 2025. "Barriers to breakthroughs: the crucial role of support services in advancing accounting practices, financial literacy and performance in disability-led SMEs," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 955-977, April.
    19. Wang, Yueying & Liu, Qinming, 2024. "Examining factors driving household carbon emissions from elderly families—Evidence from Japan," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Xu, Dandan & Guo, Dongli & Yue, Pengpeng & Li, Mengshi, 2024. "Household green consumption: Does digital inclusion matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:finlet:v:89:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325025309. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.