Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

10-2020

Abstract

Financial literacy in Singapore has not been analyzed in much detail, despite the fact that this is one of the world’s most rapidly aging nations. Using the Singapore Life Panel®, we explore older Singaporeans’ levels of financial knowledge and compare them to those observed in the United States. We assess portfolio complexity for these older households, to examine how financial literacy is related to outcomes of interest. We show that older Singaporeans’ levels of financial literacy are comparable overall to those in the United States, even though older Singaporeans score slightly lower on some dimensions (knowledge of interest and inflation), and slightly higher on their knowledge of risk diversification. We document that women are less informed than men about stock diversification, and educated people tend to be more financially knowledgeable than their less educated counterparts. We also find that financial literacy is positively associated with respondents having both more wealth and more diversified and complex portfolios.

Keywords

Financial literacy, Investment, Portfolio diversification, Pension, Central Provident Fund, Retirement, Saving, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Finance | Gerontology | Portfolio and Security Analysis

Research Areas

Finance

Publication

Journal of the Economics of Ageing

Volume

17

First Page

1

Last Page

11

ISSN

2212-828X/

Identifier

10.1016/j.jeoa.2018.11.004

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2018.11.004

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