ABSTRACT

Professional advice can be perceived as a means to tackle shortcomings in the objectively measured financial literacy of consumers. However, most studies suggest that less financially literate individuals are less likely to seek experts’ financial advice. At the same time, it has been shown that financial confidence – or subjectively perceived financial literacy – is positively correlated with the propensity to request such professional advice. This study examines these puzzling effects in a sample of 1,055 Facebook users in Poland, and within an analytical framework that allows control of the potential endogeneity of financial literacy to professional advice. A series of regressions applied to the results of our survey showed that objective debt literacy – a little-studied aspect of financial literacy – was insignificant in explaining advice-seeking behaviour, although the decisions to ask for advice were positively dependent on subjective debt literacy. Such outcomes prove that subjective financial literacy should be treated as a separate construct which can predict financial behaviour above and beyond predictions based on objective financial literacy. Our findings also suggest a positive role for social networks in inducing desired financial actions. We found that respondents having access to greater resources embedded in their social networks are more inclined to seek professional debt advice.

摘要

专业建议可以被视为解决客观衡量消费者金融知识能力不足的一种手段。但是，大多数研究表明，缺乏金融知识的人不太可能寻求专家的财务建议。同时，已经表明，财务信心（或主观上认为的财务知识）与请求此类专业建议的意愿呈正相关。这项研究在波兰的1,055名Facebook用户样本中并在一个分析框架内检查了这些令人费解的影响，该分析框架可以控制金融扫盲对专业建议的潜在内生性。对我们的调查结果进行的一系列回归分析显示，客观的债务识字率（对金融识字率的研究很少）在解释寻求咨询的行为方面微不足道，尽管寻求咨询意见的决定在很大程度上取决于主观的债务识字率。这样的结果证明，应将主观的金融素养视为一个单独的结构，可以预测基于客观金融素养的预测之上和之外的金融行为。我们的研究结果还表明，社交网络在诱导期望的财务行为方面具有积极作用。我们发现，能够访问嵌入其社交网络中的更多资源的受访者更倾向于寻求专业的债务建议。尽管寻求建议的决定在很大程度上取决于主观债务素养。这样的结果证明，应将主观的金融素养视为一个单独的结构，可以预测基于客观金融素养的预测之上和之外的金融行为。我们的研究结果还表明，社交网络在诱导期望的财务行为方面具有积极作用。我们发现，能够访问嵌入其社交网络中的更多资源的受访者更倾向于寻求专业的债务建议。尽管寻求咨询的决定在很大程度上取决于主观债务素养。这样的结果证明，应将主观的金融素养视为一个单独的结构，可以预测基于客观金融素养的预测之上和之外的金融行为。我们的研究结果还表明，社交网络在诱导期望的财务行为方面具有积极作用。我们发现，能够访问嵌入其社交网络中的更多资源的受访者更倾向于寻求专业的债务建议。