IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jec/journl/v11y2015i1p1-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Higher Education on the Unconditional Distribution of Financial Literacy

Author

Listed:
  • Zhi-fang Su

    (College of Economics and Finance, Huaqiao University, China)

  • Yujen Hsiao

    (Department of Finance, National Dong Hua University, Taiwan)

  • Mei-Yuan Chen

    (Department of Finance, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan)

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of the higher-education ratio on the distribution of financial literacy in Taiwan is investigated with the unconditional quantile estimation suggested by Firpo et al. (2009). Our empirical data are obtained from three surveys conducted in 2007, 2009, and 2011 by the Financial Supervisory Commision, R.O.C. Using the method of factor analysis suggested by van Rooij et al. (2011), the financial literacy is measured from 18 questionnaires regarding the knowledge of management of cash, savings, credit, and loans. In total, 3,155 individuals were surveyed, namely, 1,005 in 2007, 919 in 2009, and 1,231 in 2011. Our empirical results conclude that an increase in higher education not only increases the acquisition of financial literacy (which is more significant at quantiles smaller than 0.52), but also reduces the dispersion of the financial literacy distribution. This conclusion provides evidence in support of the policy of higher education expansion. Given the positive effect of financial literacy on capital income and retirement plans, the level of financial literacy will be increased and its dispersion will be decreased with the expansion of higher education, so that income inequality as a result will be reduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhi-fang Su & Yujen Hsiao & Mei-Yuan Chen, 2015. "Effects of Higher Education on the Unconditional Distribution of Financial Literacy," Journal of Economics and Management, College of Business, Feng Chia University, Taiwan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:jec:journl:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:1-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jem.org.tw/content/pdf/Vol.11No.1/01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.jem.org.tw/content/abstract/Vol.11No.1/English/01.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S Mitchelli, 2007. "Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 42(1), pages 35-44, January.
    2. Tullio Jappelli, 2010. "Economic Literacy: An International Comparison," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 429-451, November.
    3. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia Mitchell, 2006. "Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education Programs," Working Papers wp144, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    4. Bruce Ian Carlin & David T. Robinson, 2012. "Financial Education and Timely Decision Support: Lessons from Junior Achievement," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 305-308, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Su, Zhi-fang & Ma, Xiao-xiang & Xiao, Wei & Chen, Mei-Yuan, 2020. "Marginal effects of public employment on unconditional distribution of wage income in China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    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. Kiliyanni, Abdul Latheef & Sivaraman, Sunitha, 2016. "The perception-reality gap in financial literacy: Evidence from the most literate state in India," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 47-64.
    2. M. Fort & F. Manaresi & S. Trucchi, 2012. "Banks Information Policies, Financial Literacy and Household Wealth," Working Papers wp852, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Kadoya, Yoshihiko & Khan, Mostafa Saidur Rahim, 2020. "What determines financial literacy in Japan?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 353-371, July.
    4. John Gathergood & Joerg Weber, 2012. "Self-Control, Financial Literacy and Co-Holding Puzzle," Discussion Papers 2012-02, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    5. Margherita Fort & Francesco Manaresi & Serena Trucchi, 2016. "Adult financial literacy and households’ financial assets: the role of bank information policies," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(88), pages 743-782.
    6. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2014. "Self-control, financial literacy & the co-holding puzzle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 455-469.
    7. Lührmann, Melanie & Serra-Garcia, Marta & Winter, Joachim, 2015. "Teaching teenagers in finance: Does it work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 160-174.
    8. Feng, Xiangnan & Lu, Bin & Song, Xinyuan & Ma, Shuang, 2019. "Financial literacy and household finances: A Bayesian two-part latent variable modeling approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 119-137.
    9. Mohammad Tariqul Islam Khan & Siow-Hooi Tan & Gerald Goh Guan Gan, 2019. "Advanced Financial Literacy of Malaysian Gen Y Investors and Its Consequences," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 13(1), pages 83-108, February.
    10. Shen, Chung-Hua & Lin, Shih-Jie & Tang, De-Piao & Hsiao, Yu-Jen, 2016. "The relationship between financial disputes and financial literacy," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 46-65.
    11. Adriana ZAIT & Patricea Elena BERTEA, 2014. "Financial Literacy – Conceptual Definition and Proposed Approach for a Measurement Instrument," The Journal of Accounting and Management, Danubius University of Galati, issue 3, pages 37-42, December.
    12. Paiella, Monica, 2016. "Financial literacy and subjective expectations questions: A validation exercise," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 360-374.
    13. Mehmet POLAT, 2023. "An Empirical Application on Determine the Economic Literacy Levels of Public Staff," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 31(56).
    14. Azra Zaimovic & Anes Torlakovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo & Tarik Zaimovic & Lejla Dedovic & Minela Nuhic Meskovic, 2023. "Mapping Financial Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review of Determinants and Recent Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-30, June.
    15. Yoshihiko Kadoya & Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan, 2018. "Can financial literacy reduce anxiety about life in old age?," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(12), pages 1533-1550, December.
    16. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    17. Goda, Gopi Shah & Manchester, Colleen Flaherty & Sojourner, Aaron J., 2014. "What will my account really be worth? Experimental evidence on how retirement income projections affect saving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 80-92.
    18. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C., 2011. "Behavioral economics perspectives on public sector pension plans," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 315-336, April.
    19. Noviarini, Jelita & Coleman, Andrew & Roberts, Helen & Whiting, Rosalind H., 2023. "Financial literacy and retirees' resource allocation decisions in New Zealand," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Florian Deuflhard & Dimitris Georgarakos & Roman Inderst, 2019. "Financial Literacy and Savings Account Returns," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-164.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial literacy; recentered influence function; unconditional quantile estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C46 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Specific Distributions

    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:jec:journl:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:1-22. 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: Yi-Ju Su (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.html .

    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.