IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v102y2024ics0167487024000242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between money and speculative asset: The role of financial literacy on the perception towards Bitcoin in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Cascavilla, Alessandro

Abstract

With Bitcoin at the forefront, cryptocurrencies are gaining traction as an alternative asset investment, particularly among young investors. Although most of the empirical evidence has shown that it could not be defined as a currency, some Bitcoin users argue the opposite. This paper analyzes the factors influencing the perception of Bitcoin, i.e., whether it is a currency or an asset, with a focus on financial literacy among a subject pool of university students in Italy. The results show that, after controlling for several individual characteristics such as behavioral biases, personal attitudes, psychological traits, and socio-demographic information, this cryptocurrency is considered more than just an asset, and thus it could replace currency, among subjects with lower financial literacy, higher knowledge of Bitcoin, and those who do not trust the banking system. In contrast, Bitcoin is considered a speculative asset among those individuals with higher financial literacy. In line with the recent evidence that cryptocurrencies are mostly owned by young investors, results indicate the importance of increasing the level of financial education among them.

Suggested Citation

  • Cascavilla, Alessandro, 2024. "Between money and speculative asset: The role of financial literacy on the perception towards Bitcoin in Italy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:102:y:2024:i:c:s0167487024000242
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2024.102716
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487024000242
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102716?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 search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Financial education; Financial literacy; Behavioral bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:joepsy:v:102:y:2024:i:c:s0167487024000242. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    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.