KNOWLEDGE CHANGES FATE: CAN FINANCIAL LITERACY ADVANCE POVERTY REDUCTION IN RURAL HOUSEHOLDS?

Shulin Xu, Zhen Yang, Zefeng Tong and Yunfeng Li
Additional contact information
Shulin Xu: School of Economics, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, P. R. China
Zhen Yang: ��School of Business Administration, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, P. R. China
Zefeng Tong: ��School of Public Finance and Taxation, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, P. R. China
Yunfeng Li: �School of Finance, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, P. R. China

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2023, vol. 68, issue 04, 1147-1182

Abstract: Poverty reduction and inclusive growth in poor rural areas attracted the increasing attention of governments and scholars around the world. We investigate financial literacy by conceptualizing its impacts on rural households’ poverty reduction, considering current and long-term economic income dynamics. Using a database from 2015 to 2017 China Household Finance Survey, we find that financial literacy has current and long-term effects on promoting rural households’ status by eliminating and effectively improving poverty (dynamic effects). Second, this study reveals that financial literacy and education have a significant complementary effect on rural households’ poverty reduction. The study distinguishes financial literacy from knowledge obtained through general education. Third, financial education is shown to significantly improve rural households’ financial literacy on and enhance poverty reduction. The policy implications of our findings include that the governments and financial institutions are also required to rigorously measure, understand and improve financial literacy. Reform of financial regulatory systems must include a national strategy for education projects and improvement in the quality and supervision of financial products and services.

Keywords: Financial literacy; rural household poverty reduction; inclusive growth; financial education; heterogeneity analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D14 G10 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0217590821440057
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:serxxx:v:68:y:2023:i:04:n:s0217590821440057

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0217590821440057

Access Statistics for this article

The Singapore Economic Review (SER) is currently edited by Euston Quah

More articles in The Singapore Economic Review (SER) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().