Financial Literacy as a Prerequisite for Citizens’ Economic Security: Development of a Measurement Instrument
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2014), pp. 29–40
Pub. online: 30 September 2014
Type: Article
Open Access
Published
30 September 2014
30 September 2014
Abstract
The level of citizens’ financial knowledge has a great impact on financial well-being of individuals and society. In this regard public authorities in many countries initiated a process of development and implementation of National strategies to enhance financial literacy level. The initial step of developing a national strategy is evaluation of current situation. Thus, financial literacy measuring issues are frequently debated in the academic and public environment. The goal of the current research is to develop a measurement instrument to evaluate the level of financial knowledge of Latvian citizens. The present paper reflects the results of the authors’ conducted survey based on the sample of 169 respondents. A set of 12 questions on financial matters was developed to detect perceived importance and complexity of financial literacy components, as well as to get financial literacy self-assessment scores. Data was processed by means of SPSS, applying such methods, as analysis of means, analysis of frequencies and independent samples t-test. Received results assist to precise the content and wording of questions to be included into the questionnaire for evaluation financial literacy level of Latvian citizens.