IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gla/glaewp/2020_27.html

Is Literacy a Multi-dimensional Concept? Some Empirical Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Georgios A. Panos
  • Theocharis Kromydas
  • Michael Osborne
  • Robert E. Wright

Abstract

Literacy is a multi-dimensional concept. In this chapter, seven potential dimensions of literacy are considered: (1) Mathematical literacy, (2) Foreign language literacy, (3) Digital literacy, (4) Financial literacy, (5) Political literacy, (6) Environmental literacy, and (7) Health literacy. Data from the Glasgow-based Integrated Multimedia City Data (iMCD) project included information that allows for the operationalization of these dimensions. Multiple-regression analysis is used to explore the correlates of these dimensions of literacy. One key finding is that there are gender differences in all the dimensions of literacy. There are large advantages in favour of males with respect to political, digital, financial, and environmental literacy, health and mathematical literacy. The only advantage in the favour of females is foreign language literacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgios A. Panos & Theocharis Kromydas & Michael Osborne & Robert E. Wright, 2020. "Is Literacy a Multi-dimensional Concept? Some Empirical Evidence," Working Papers 2020_27, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    • Handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2020_27
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_766721_smxx.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Denver, David & Hands, Gordon, 1990. "Does Studying Politics Make a Difference? The Political Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of School Students," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 263-279, April.
    2. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    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. Insoo Cho & Peter F. Orazem, 2021. "How endogenous risk preferences and sample selection affect analysis of firm survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1309-1332, April.
    2. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    3. Lim Soyoung & Jung Hongjoo, 2025. "Determinants of Insurance and Insurer Preferences Among Financial Consumers in ASEAN: Evidence from Myanmar, Vietnam, and Indonesia," International Review of Financial Consumers, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 38-52.
    4. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Goldfayn-Frank, Olga & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2018. "How do consumers adapt to a new environment in their economic forecasting? Evidence from the German reunification," IMFS Working Paper Series 129, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    6. Kovács Erzsébet & Vaskövi Ágnes, 2020. "Pension Pessimism in the Young Generation: Basics or Instincts to Blame?," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 117-131, October.
    7. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    8. Bomi Nomlala, 2021. "Financial Socialisation of Accounting Students in South Africa," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 01-15, April.
    9. Koomson, Isaac & Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi & Smyth, Russell, 2025. "Financial literacy and clean energy adoption in South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    10. M. Martin Boyer & Philippe De Donder & Claude Denys Fluet & Marie-Louise Leroux & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2018. "A Canadian Parlor Room-Type Approach to the Long-Term Care Insurance Puzzle," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-13, CIRANO.
    11. Sergio Longobardi & Margherita Maria Pagliuca & Andrea Regoli, 2018. "Can problem-solving attitudes explain the gender gap in financial literacy? Evidence from Italian students’ data," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1677-1705, July.
    12. Bartels, Charlotte & Sierminska, Eva & Schröder, Carsten, 2025. "Wealth creators or inheritors? Unpacking the gender wealth gap from bottom to top and young to old," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    13. Carlos Santiago Guzm√°n Guti√©rrez, 2019. "Sistema Pensional Colombiano: implicaciones de la educaci√≥n financiera sobre las decisiones de traslado de los individuos," Documentos CEDE 17677, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    14. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Hsu, Joanne W. & Paradowski, Piotr R., 2022. "Investor confidence and high financial literacy jointly shape investments in risky assets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    15. Sun, Zhongyu & Li, Jun, 2025. "The impact of economic policy uncertainty on household portfolios effectiveness: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Laureane du Plessis & Yolanda Jordaan & Liezl-Marié van der Westhuizen, 2024. "Psychological needs and financial well-being: the role of consumer spending self-control," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 1197-1206, December.
    17. Yusuf, Fatima & Yousaf, Amna & Saeed, Abubakr, 2018. "Rethinking agency theory in developing countries: A case study of Pakistan," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 281-292.
    18. Di Giannatale, Sonia & Roa, María José, 2016. "Formal Saving in Developing Economies: Barriers, Interventions, and Effects," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8107, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Zhu, Xinxin & Jiao, Peiran & Zong, Jichuan, 2024. "Beliefs and the equity home bias," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    20. Claudio Michelacci & Luigi Paciello, 2020. "Ambiguous Policy Announcements," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2356-2398.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    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:gla:glaewp:2020_27. 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: Business School Research Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dpglauk.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.