Financial literacy among the young: evidence and implications for consumer policy

  • We examined financial literacy among the young using the most recent wave of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We showed that financial literacy is low; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. Financial literacy was strongly related to sociodemographic characteristics and family financial sophistication. Specifically, a college-educated male whose parents had stocks and retirement savings was about 45 percentage points more likely to know about risk diversification than a female with less than a high school education whose parents were not wealthy. These findings have implications for consumer policy. JEL Classification: D91

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Metadaten
Author:Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. MitchellORCiDGND, Vilsa Curto
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-78626
Parent Title (German):Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt am Main): CFS working paper series ; No. 2010,09
Series (Serial Number):CFS working paper series (2010, 09)
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Year of Completion:2010
Year of first Publication:2010
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2010/08/19
Tag:Family Background; Financial Knowledge; Peer Effects
HeBIS-PPN:226433714
Institutes:Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Center for Financial Studies (CFS)
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht