TY  - UNPD
A1  - Rooij, Maarten van
A1  - Lusardi, Annamaria
A1  - Alessie, Rob
T1  - Financial literacy, retirement planning, and household wealth
T2  - Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt am Main): CFS working paper series ; No. 2011,21
N2  - There is ample empirical evidence documenting widespread financial illiteracy and limited pension knowledge. At the same time, the distribution of wealth is widely dispersed and many workers arrive on the verge of retirement with few or no personal assets. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between financial literacy and household net worth, relying on comprehensive measures of financial knowledge designed for a special module of the DNB (De Nederlandsche Bank) Household Survey. Our findings provide evidence of a strong positive association between financial literacy and net worth, even after controlling for many determinants of wealth. Moreover, we discuss two channels through which financial literacy might facilitate wealth accumulation. First, financial knowledge increases the likelihood of investing in the stock market, allowing individuals to benefit from the equity premium. Second, financial literacy is positively related to retirement planning, and the development of a savings plan has been shown to boost wealth. Overall, financial literacy, both directly and indirectly, is found to have a strong link to household wealth. JEL Classification: D91, D12, J26 Keywords: Financial Education, Savings and Wealth Accumulation, Retirement Preparation, Knowledge of Finance and Economics, Overconfidence, Stock Market Participation
T3  - CFS working paper series - 2011, 21 
KW  - financial education
KW  - savings and wealth accumulation
KW  - retirement preparation
KW  - knowledge of finance and economics
KW  - overconfidence
Y1  - 2011
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/22705
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-115373
IS  - Version August 2011
ER  -