IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/baf/cbafwp/cbafwp23206.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Politicians, Trust and Financial Literacy: When Do Politicians Care?

Author

Listed:
  • Donato Masciandaro

Abstract

Politicians can be more or less active in pursuing financial-literacy policies. This paper explores the role of financial-literacy policy in modifying the financial-trust endowment of a given population taking the political cost-benefit analysis into account. As, in any period, each incumbent government can design and implement its own financial-literacy policy and as financial-literacy deficits are more likely in a period of financial innovation, we assume that constituencies more or less in favour of such policies are present in a given country. If this is the case, we can show that, in a democracy with political competition, the level of activism in implementing financial-literacy policies is positively associated with financial-instability risks, literacy benefits, and illiteracy costs. Moreover, preferences and constraints motivate the politician in charge. More specifically, a more longer time horizons, lower psychological attitudes towards the status quo, and a higher probability of re-election can increase financial-literacy efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Politicians, Trust and Financial Literacy: When Do Politicians Care?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23206, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp23206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.unibocconi.it/baffic/baf/papers/cbafwp23206.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Alberto Alesina & Francesco Passarelli, 2019. "Loss Aversion in Politics," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(4), pages 936-947, October.
    3. Shim, Soyeon & Serido, Joyce & Tang, Chuanyi, 2013. "After the global financial crash: Individual factors differentiating young adult consumers’ trust in banks and financial institutions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 26-33.
    4. Luigi Guiso & Eliana Viviano, 2015. "How Much Can Financial Literacy Help?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(4), pages 1347-1382.
    5. Markus Knell & Helmut Stix, 2015. "Trust in Banks during Normal and Crisis Times—Evidence from Survey Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 995-1020, December.
    6. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2009. "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1218-1244, September.
    7. van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2018. "Political economy of dynamic resource wars," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 765-782.
    8. Jonathan B. Berk & Jules H. Van Binsbergen, 2022. "Regulation of Charlatans in High‐Skill Professions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 1219-1258, April.
    9. Calcagno, Riccardo & Monticone, Chiara, 2015. "Financial literacy and the demand for financial advice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 363-380.
    10. Ferrara, Federico M. & Masciandaro, Donato & Moschella, Manuela & Romelli, Davide, 2022. "Political voice on monetary policy: Evidence from the parliamentary hearings of the European Central Bank," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Marco Battaglini & Salvatore Nunnari & Thomas R. Palfrey, 2014. "Dynamic Free Riding with Irreversible Investments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2858-2871, September.
    12. Quattrone, George A. & Tversky, Amos, 1988. "Contrasting Rational and Psychological Analyses of Political Choice," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 719-736, September.
    13. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    14. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2023. "The Importance of Financial Literacy: Opening a New Field," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 137-154, Fall.
    15. Sheffer, Lior & Loewen, Peter John & Soroka, Stuart & Walgrave, Stefaan & Sheafer, Tamir, 2018. "Nonrepresentative Representatives: An Experimental Study of the Decision Making of Elected Politicians - CORRIGENDUM," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(2), pages 428-428, May.
    16. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro, 2019. "Cryptocurrency or usury? Crime and alternative money laundering techniques," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 233-254, April.
    17. Gambacorta, Leonardo & Doerr, Sebastian & Guiso, Luigi & Sanchez del Villar, Marina, 2023. "Privacy regulation and fintech lending," CEPR Discussion Papers 18216, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Lauren E. Willis, 2011. "The Financial Education Fallacy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 429-434, May.
    19. John M. Griffin & Samuel Kruger & Prateek Mahajan, 2023. "Did FinTech Lenders Facilitate PPP Fraud?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1777-1827, June.
    20. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2011. "Financial literacy around the world: an overview," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 497-508, October.
    21. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2008. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Diversification," EIEF Working Papers Series 0812, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Oct 2008.
    22. Favaretto, Federico & Masciandaro, Donato, 2016. "Doves, hawks and pigeons: Behavioral monetary policy and interest rate inertia," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 50-58.
    23. Renée Birgit Adams & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2012. "A Trust Crisis," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 123-131, June.
    24. Billari, Francesco C. & Favero, Carlo A. & Saita, Francesco, 2023. "Online financial and demographic education for workers: Experimental evidence from an Italian Pension Fund," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    25. Riccardo Calcagno & Chiara Monticone, 2015. "Financial Literacy and the Demand for Financial Advice," Post-Print hal-02313173, HAL.
    26. Sheffer, Lior & Loewen, Peter John & Soroka, Stuart & Walgrave, Stefaan & Sheafer, Tamir, 2018. "Nonrepresentative Representatives: An Experimental Study of the Decision Making of Elected Politicians," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(2), pages 302-321, May.
    27. Bård Harstad, 2023. "The Conservation Multiplier," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(7), pages 1731-1771.
    28. Federico M. Ferrara & Donato Masciandaro & Manuela Moschella & Davide Romelli, 2021. "Political Voice on Monetary Policy: Evidence from the Parliamentary Hearings of the European Central Bank," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21159, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    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. Carolina Guerini & Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Financial Education between Market and State: Private Commitment, Conflicts of Interest and Public Certification," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23213, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    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. Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Politicians, Trust, Financial Literacy and Financial Education: When Do Politicians Care?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23208, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    2. Carolina Guerini & Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Financial Education between Market and State: Private Commitment, Conflicts of Interest and Public Certification," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23213, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    3. 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.
    4. Li, Xiao, 2020. "When financial literacy meets textual analysis: A conceptual review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    5. Milo Bianchi, 2018. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Dynamics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(2), pages 831-859, April.
    6. Carin van der Cruijsen & Jakob de Haan & Ria Roerink, 2021. "Financial knowledge and trust in financial institutions," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 680-714, June.
    7. Giuseppe Marotta, 2018. "Why choosing dominated personal pension plans: sales force and financial literacy effects," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0072, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    8. Annamaria Lusardi, 2015. "Risk Literacy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 1(1), pages 5-23, March.
    9. 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.
    10. Hsiao, Yu-Jen & Tsai, Wei-Che, 2018. "Financial literacy and participation in the derivatives markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 15-29.
    11. Delis, Manthos & Galariotis, Emilios & Monne, Jerome, 2021. "Economic condition and financial cognition," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Susanna Levantesi & Giulia Zacchia, 2021. "Machine Learning and Financial Literacy: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Financial Knowledge in Italy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Billari, Francesco C. & Favero, Carlo A. & Saita, Francesco, 2023. "Online financial and demographic education for workers: Experimental evidence from an Italian Pension Fund," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Wang, Hongyang & Zhang, Dayong & Guariglia, Alessandra & Fan, Gang-Zhi, 2021. "‘Growing out of the growing pain’: Financial literacy and life insurance demand in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Litterscheidt, Rouven & Streich, David J., 2020. "Financial education and digital asset management: What's in the black box?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Brenner, Lukas & Meyll, Tobias, 2020. "Robo-advisors: A substitute for human financial advice?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    18. Bellofatto, Anthony & Broihanne, Marie-Hélène & D'Hondt, Catherine, 2019. "Appetite for information and trading behavior," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2019002, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    19. Jennifer Alonso Garcia & Michael Sherris & Samuel Thirurajah & Jonathan Ziveyi, 2020. "Taxation and policyholder behavior: the case of guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/307889, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Kramer, Marc M., 2016. "Financial literacy, confidence and financial advice seeking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 198-217.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial literacy; financial trust; fintech; financial crisis; loss aversion; political competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp23206. 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: Michela Pozzi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbbocit.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.