Is Financial Literacy Dangerous? Financial Literacy, Behavioral Factors, and Financial Choices of Households

References

Cite

Share

Abstract

Using purpose-built original 2018 Japanese survey data, we estimate the financial behaviors and attitudes of households. We find that financial literacy plays an important and consistent role in financial decision-making. However, the actual behaviors are counter-intuitive: People with high financial literacy tend to take too many risks, overborrow, and hold naive financial attitudes; that is, financial literacy makes people daring and reckless in some financial aspects. By contrast, financially literate people are good at retirement planning and are indifferent to gambling. Preferences such as risk and loss aversions and discount factors, also have a role in financial choices.