An Uphill Battle: Financial Education in Romania in the Midst of Societal Transformation

Radu Șimandan (), Beatrice Leuștean and Răzvan Mihai Dobrescu
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Radu Șimandan: Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Beatrice Leuștean: Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Răzvan Mihai Dobrescu: Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Radu Ioan Şimandan

JRFM, 2022, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: Given Romania’s relatively poor performance from a financial literacy perspective, many public and private entities are currently implementing various initiatives to address this problem. Assuming that financial education projects are a source of insights into broader societal issues, we analyze a sample of financial education projects to discern the issues of societal transformation reflected in their contents. We collected data from financial education websites and analyzed them through qualitative content analysis. We identify and discuss several manifest and latent themes and note the absence of others commonly found in the literature. The emphasis in the manifest themes falls on offering calibrated advice to a public with a relatively low level of financial literacy, prone to unhealthy behaviors such as consumerism, impulse buying, and indebtedness. Several latent concerns concentrate on the changing economic and social landscape, the fear that some traits of national character may hinder the individual appetite for adaptation, and the threat of an economic crisis. The needs of vulnerable groups are rarely addressed, while topics such as the ethical dimension of consumption, environmental and sustainability issues, and gender stereotypes are lacking. We thus find that the financial education initiatives in Romania address an underdeveloped range of topics.

Keywords: financial education; financial literacy; financial knowledge; personal financial planning; consumerism; societal transformation; Romania; qualitative methods in finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C E F2 F3 G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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