IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mlb/wpaper/1170.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial Literacy and Remittance Behaviour of Skilled and Unskilled Immigrant Groups in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Wasana Karunarathne
  • John Gibson

Abstract

The growing literature on financial literacy suggests people in many countries are poorly prepared for making major financial decisions. One important sub-population rarely examined by financial literacy studies is immigrants, who have specialised financial needs related to remittances. This paper examines variation in financial literacy amongst two actively remitting immigrant groups in Australia – Sri Lankans and Samoans – using surveys designed and supervised by the authors. Paying attention to remittance-related and credit-related literacy, large gaps in the level of financial literacy of the two groups are shown, which are due especially to differences in educational attainment. The wide variation in the transactions costs of various remittance channels available to these two groups suggest that many immigrants could save several hundred dollars per year if improved financial literacy helped to produce more efficient remittance choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Wasana Karunarathne & John Gibson, 2013. "Financial Literacy and Remittance Behaviour of Skilled and Unskilled Immigrant Groups in Australia," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1170, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/796969/1170.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mathia Sinning & Markus Hahn & Thomas K. Bauer, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for nonlinear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 480-492, December.
    2. van Rooij, Maarten & Lusardi, Annamaria & Alessie, Rob, 2011. "Financial literacy and stock market participation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 449-472, August.
    3. Diana J. Beal & Sarath B. Delpachitra, 2003. "Financial Literacy Among Australian University Students," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 22(1), pages 65-78, March.
    4. Karunarathne, Wasana & Gibson, John, 2014. "Financial literacy and remittance behavior of skilled and unskilled immigrant groups in Australia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 54-62.
    5. John Gibson & David McKenzie & Bilal Zia, 2014. "The Impact of Financial Literacy Training for Migrants," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 130-161.
    6. John Gibson & Geua Boe-Gibson & Halahingano Rohorua & David McKenzie, 2007. "Efficient remittance services for development in the Pacific," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 14(2), pages 55-74, December.
    7. David J. McKenzie & Johan Mistiaen, 2009. "Surveying migrant households: a comparison of census‐based, snowball and intercept point surveys," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 172(2), pages 339-360, April.
    8. Annamarie Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2005. "Financial Literacy and Planning: Implications for Retirement Wellbeing," Working Papers wp108, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. Anna Paulson & Sherrie Rhine, 2008. "The Financial Assimilation of an Immigrant Group: Evidence on the Use of Checking and Savings Accounts and Currency Exchanges," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 264-278, June.
    10. John Gibson & David McKenzie & Halahingano Rohorua, 2006. "How Cost Elastic are Remittances? Estimates from Tongan Migrants in New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 06/02, University of Waikato.
    11. Carpena, Fenella & Cole, Shawn & Shapiro, Jeremy & Zia, Bilal, 2011. "Unpacking the causal chain of financial literacy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5798, The World Bank.
    12. David Neumark, 1988. "Employers' Discriminatory Behavior and the Estimation of Wage Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    13. World Bank, 2011. "Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011 : Second Edition," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2522.
    14. Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Ransom, Michael R., 1994. "On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 5-21, March.
    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. Anwar, Sajid & Cooray, Arusha, 2015. "Financial flows and per capita income in developing countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 304-314.
    2. Karunarathne, Wasana & Gibson, John, 2014. "Financial literacy and remittance behavior of skilled and unskilled immigrant groups in Australia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 54-62.
    3. Nocito, Samuel & Venturini, Alessandra, 2024. "Inter-Institutional Cooperation and Migrants' Financial Education: An Italian Case Study," IZA Discussion Papers 17214, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Lin, Chaonan & Hsiao, Yu-Jen & Yeh, Cheng-Yung, 2017. "Financial literacy, financial advisors, and information sources on demand for life insurance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 218-237.
    5. Sultana Begum Abida Mazumder, 2021. "Determinants of Remittances: A Study in Cachar District of Assam," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 22(2), pages 474-484, April.
    6. Tracey West & Elizabeth Mitchell, 2022. "Australian women with good financial knowledge fare better in divorce," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(2), pages 203-224, May.
    7. Samuel Nocito & Alessandra Venturini, 2022. "Does Cooperation among Institutions Foster Migrants Inclusion? Evidence from a Case-Study on Financial Literacy in Italy," Working Papers 10/22, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    8. 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.
    9. Amjad Khan Suri & Sonal Purohit, 2017. "An Analysis of Personal Financial Literacy among Expatriates in the United Arab Emirates," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 4(3), pages 278-296, September.
    10. Nonna Kushnirovich, 2016. "Immigrant investors in financial markets: modes of financial behavior," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 992-1006, November.

    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. Doi, Yoko & McKenzie, David & Zia, Bilal, 2014. "Who you train matters: Identifying combined effects of financial education on migrant households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 39-55.
    2. Margaret Miller & Julia Reichelstein & Christian Salas & Bilal Zia, 2015. "Can You Help Someone Become Financially Capable? A Meta-Analysis of the Literature," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 220-246.
    3. Jakub Picka, 2014. "Problém "public-private pay gap" v České republice [The Public-Private Pay Gap in the Czech Republic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(5), pages 662-682.
    4. Powers, Daniel A. & Yun, Myeong-Su, 2009. "Multivariate Decomposition for Hazard Rate Models," IZA Discussion Papers 3971, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Yun Liang & John Gibson, 2017. "Location or Hukou: What Most Limits Fertility of Urban Women in China?," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 527-540, September.
    6. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2017. "Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 611-630.
    7. Samuel Nocito & Alessandra Venturini, 2022. "Does Cooperation among Institutions Foster Migrants Inclusion? Evidence from a Case-Study on Financial Literacy in Italy," Working Papers 10/22, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    8. Zaheer Ahmed & Umara Noreen & Suresh A.L. Ramakrishnan & Dewi Fariha Binti Abdullah, 2021. "What explains the investment decision-making behaviour? The role of financial literacy and financial risk tolerance," Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19.
    9. Amjad Khan Suri & Sonal Purohit, 2017. "An Analysis of Personal Financial Literacy among Expatriates in the United Arab Emirates," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 4(3), pages 278-296, September.
    10. Linh Nguyen & Gerry Gallery & Cameron Newton, 2019. "The joint influence of financial risk perception and risk tolerance on individual investment decision‐making," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(S1), pages 747-771, April.
    11. Elvin Afandi & Majid Kermani, 2014. "Bridging the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Europe," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp1074, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    12. Ian Watson, 2010. "Decomposing the Gender Pay Gap in the Australian Managerial Labour Market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 13(1), pages 49-79.
    13. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2018. "Active Learning Fosters Financial Behavior: Experimental Evidence," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1743, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Jaanika Meriküll & Pille Mõtsmees, 2017. "Do you get what you ask? The gender gap in desired and realised wages," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(6), pages 893-908, September.
    15. Calderone, Margherita & Fiala, Nathan & Mulaj, Florentina & Sadhu, Santadarshan & Sarr, Leopold, 2014. "When Can Financial Education Affect Savings Behavior? Evidence From A Randomized Experiment Among Low Income Clients of Branchless Banking in India," Working Papers 32, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    16. John Gibson & David McKenzie & Bilal Zia, 2014. "The Impact of Financial Literacy Training for Migrants," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 130-161.
    17. Font, Sarah A. & Berger, Lawrence M. & Slack, Kristen S., 2012. "Examining racial disproportionality in child protective services case decisions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2188-2200.
    18. 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.
    19. Koji Kubo, 2015. "Evolving Informal Remittance Methods of Myanmar Migrant Workers in Thailand," Working Papers DP-2015-45, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    20. Okechukwu D. Anyamele, 2018. "Racial Ethnic differences in Household Loan Delinquency Rate in recent financial crisis: Evidence from 2007 and 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 8(3), pages 1-4.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial literacy; Immigrants; Remittances; Transaction Costs; Information; Australia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances

    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:mlb:wpaper:1170. 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: Dandapani Lokanathan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demelau.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.