scholarly journals Is Financial Literacy Associated with Investment in Financial Markets in the United States?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7370
Author(s):  
Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan ◽  
Naheed Rabbani ◽  
Yoshihiko Kadoya
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Parameter Study ◽  
Futures Options ◽  
Using Data

Lack of investment in financial markets is one of the enduring puzzles in empirical finance. Although recent studies ascribe the lack of investment in stocks to financial literacy, the association between financial literacy and investment in financial markets remains inconclusive. We examine whether financial literacy is associated with investment in financial markets in the United States. We use investment in stocks, futures/options, investment trusts, corporate bonds, foreign currency deposits, and government bonds of foreign currency as a proxy for investment in financial markets. Using data from the Preference Parameter Study, a nationwide panel survey conducted by Osaka University of Japan, we provide evidence that financial literacy has a significantly positive association with investment in financial markets even after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological factors. We check the robustness of our results by using an alternative proxy for investment in financial markets. Our study has far-reaching policy implications and we conclude by suggesting the introduction of financial literacy programs into the academic curriculum. Improving financial literacy could positively impact the mobilization of household funds and contribute to capital formation.

scholarly journals Can Financial Literacy Explain Lack of Investment in Risky Assets in Japan?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12616
Author(s):  
Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan ◽  
Naheed Rabbani ◽  
Yoshihiko Kadoya
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Parameter Study ◽  
Government Bonds ◽  
Risky Assets ◽  
Futures Options ◽  
Foreign Currencies ◽  
Equity Securities

Although household savings in Japan are among the highest in the world, investment in risky assets is still very low. This study examines whether financial literacy explains the lack of investment in risky assets in Japan. We use data from the Preference Parameter Study, a nationwide survey in Japan that has been conducted by Osaka University. We use investment in stocks, investment trusts, futures/options, Japanese government bonds, government bonds of foreign countries, and foreign currency deposits as a proxy for investment in risky assets. Our results show that investment in risky assets is higher among financially literate people. Moreover, financial literacy has a significantly positive association with investment in risky assets even after controlling the demographic, socio-economic, and psychological factors. We check the robustness of the association between financial literacy and investment in risky assets by segregating investment in risky assets into investment in equity securities and investment in bonds and foreign currencies. Financial literacy is found to be associated with both investment in equity securities and investment in bonds and foreign currencies. Our results are also robust in terms of the endogeneity issue. The results imply that investment in risky assets in financial markets could be increased by introducing financial literacy programs at a mass level.

scholarly journals Why Does the Importance of Education for Health Differ across the United States?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 237802311989954
Author(s):  
Blakelee R. Kemp ◽  
Jennifer Karas Montez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Childhood Health ◽  
Tobacco Policies ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Using Data

The positive association between educational attainment and adult health (“the gradient”) is stronger in some areas of the United States than in others. Explanations for the geographic pattern have not been rigorously investigated. Grounded in a contextual and life-course perspective, the aim of this study is to assess childhood circumstances (e.g., childhood health, compulsory schooling laws) and adult circumstances (e.g., wealth, lifestyles, economic policies) as potential explanations. Using data on U.S.-born adults aged 50 to 59 years at baseline ( n = 13,095) and followed for up to 16 years across the 1998 to 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, the authors examined how and why educational gradients in morbidity, functioning, and mortality vary across nine U.S. regions. The findings indicate that the gradient is stronger in some areas than others partly because of geographic differences in childhood socioeconomic conditions and health, but mostly because of geographic differences in adult circumstances such as wealth, lifestyles, and economic and tobacco policies.

Social Amelioration through Mass Insurgency? A Reexamination of the Piven and Cloward Thesis

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1003-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Albritton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rival Hypothesis ◽  
Welfare Caseloads ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Welfare Caseload

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward (1971, 1977) have argued that mass insurgency in the United States, occurring especially between 1964 and 1969, produced a series of responses by government, one of the most significant being massive expansion of welfare rolls. Using data on which they base their claim, this study examines the hypothesis that there is a positive association between social disorders and welfare caseload increases. The conclusion is that associations specified by Piven and Cloward are not supported by the data and a plausible rival hypothesis is offered to explain the massive increases in welfare caseloads.

scholarly journals Do Financial Literacy and Financial Education Influence Smoking Behavior in the United States?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2579
Author(s):  
Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan ◽  
Pongpat Putthinun ◽  
Somtip Watanapongvanich ◽  
Pattaphol Yuktadatta ◽  
Md. Azad Uddin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Smoking Behavior ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Financial Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Rational Decision Making

Smoking is still a serious economic, health, and social problem despite various efforts to curb its prevalence. We examined the influence of financial literacy and financial education on the smoking behavior in the United States in terms of the use of rational decision-making abilities to reduce irrational behavior. We hypothesized that financial literacy and financial education, as proxies for rational decision making, would reduce the likelihood of smoking. We used data from the Preference Parameters Study (PPS) of Osaka University conducted in the United States in 2010 and applied probit regression models to test our hypothesis on a sample of 3831 individuals. We found that financially literate people are less likely to be smokers, though we found no clear role of financial education in reducing the likelihood of smoking. Further, respondents’ gender, age, unemployment status, and risky health behaviors such as drinking and gambling, have a significantly positive association with smoking, while marital status, university degree, family size, household income, household assets, physical exercise, and level of happiness have a significantly negative association. Our findings suggest that financial literacy, as an instrument encouraging rational decision making, could be a tool to help reduce smoking in the United States.

scholarly journals The Nonlinear Linkage Between Earnings Homogamy and Earnings Inequality Among Married Couples

Demography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 527-550
Author(s):  
Yifan Shen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Married Couple ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Earnings Inequality ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
High Earning ◽  
Using Data

Abstract More married couples today consist of two high-earning or two low-earning partners (i.e., earnings homogamy), which leads to greater earnings inequality in married-couple families. Surprisingly few studies have examined this relationship by earnings level, leaving open the question of whether the increase in earnings homogamy at each level of earnings contributes equally to between-couple earnings inequality. I address this question using data on urban China during 1988–2013. Changes in earnings homogamy account for 6% to 11% of the increase in between-couple inequality, but importantly, decomposition reveals that 57% to 68% of the overall impact is driven by the growing earnings homogamy among the top 20% of husbands and their wives. I reach the same finding by replicating the analyses using data from the United States. Two explanations account for this finding: (1) earnings homogamy has increased more among high earners; and (2) all else being equal, increases among high earners are mechanically more influential in shaping the level of between-couple inequality. These findings have important theoretical and policy implications.

scholarly journals Beyond America: Cross-national Context and the Impact of Religious Versus Secular Organizational Membership on Self-rated Health

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311879595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Upenieks ◽  
Steven L. Foy ◽  
Andrew Miles
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Level ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Organizational Membership ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Organizational Involvement ◽  
The Impact

Studies using data from the United States suggest religious organizational involvement is more beneficial for health than secular organizational involvement. Extending beyond the United States, we assess the relative impacts of religious and secular organizational involvement on self-rated health cross-nationally, accounting for national-level religious context. Analyses of data from 33 predominantly Christian countries from the 2005–2008 World Values Survey reveal that active membership in religious organizations is positively associated with self-rated health. This association’s magnitude is higher than the magnitude of associations between many memberships in secular organizations and health. The positive association between involvement in religious organization and self-rated health is moderated by national levels of religious pluralism such that positive associations are primarily found in nations high in religious diversity. These results replicated in a sample of 21 majority-Christian nations from the 2010–2014 World Values Survey.

Migration and the Internet

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas John Cooke ◽  
Ian Shuttleworth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Using Data ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Dynamics Models

It is widely presumed that information and communication technologies, or ICTs, enable migration in several ways; primarily by reducing the costs of migration. However, a reconsideration of the relationship between ICTs and migration suggests that ICTs may just as well hinder migration; primarily by reducing the costs of not moving.  Using data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics, models that control for sources of observed and unobserved heterogeneity indicate a strong negative effect of ICT use on inter-state migration within the United States. These results help to explain the long-term decline in internal migration within the United States.

Ocena antykryzysowej polityki gospodarczej Stanów Zjednoczonych i wybranych państw członkowskich Unii Europejskiej w latach 2005–2014

2016 ◽  
pp. 26-46
Author(s):  
Marcin Jan Flotyński
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
High Volatility ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Domestic Products

The global financial crisis in 2007–2009 began a period of high volatility on the financial markets. Specifically, it caused an increased amplitude of fluctuations of the level of gross domestic products, the level of investment and consumption and exchange rates in particular countries. To address the adverse market circumstances, governments and central banks took actions in order to bolster the weakening global economy. The aim of this article is to present the anti-crisis actions in the United States and selected member states of the European Union, including Poland, and an assessment of their efficiency. The analysis conducted indicates that generally the actions taken in the United States in response to the crisis were faster and more adequate to the existing circumstances than in the European Union.

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