According to a survey by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in 2017, 3.6% of Japanese adults—equivalent to about 3.2 million people—have suffered from problem gambling at some point in their lifetime. This study examines the relationship between financial literacy, financial education, and gambling behavior (measured as gambling frequency) among the Japanese population. We hypothesize that financially literate and financially educated people who use their knowledge to make sound financial decisions are less likely to gamble. The data used in this study are from a nationwide survey in Japan from the Preference Parameters Study of Osaka University in 2010 (n = 3687). To control for endogeneity bias between financial literacy and gambling behavior, we use the education of respondents’ fathers as an instrumental variable. The results from the probit-instrumental variable model show that financial literacy has a significantly negative relationship with gambling frequency, while financial education has no significant relationship with gambling frequency. Our findings suggest that problem gambling may be mitigated by promoting financial literacy, but no such conclusion can be drawn for financial education.

根据日本厚生劳动省 2017 年的一项调查，3.6% 的日本成年人（相当于约 320 万人）在其一生中的某个阶段遭受过赌博问题。本研究调查了日本人口中金融知识、金融教育和赌博行为（以赌博频率衡量）之间的关系。我们假设具有金融知识和金融教育的人使用他们的知识做出合理的财务决策的人不太可能赌博。本研究中使用的数据来自 2010 年大阪大学偏好参数研究（n = 3687）在日本进行的全国性调查。为了控制金融素养和赌博行为之间的内生性偏差，我们使用受访者父亲的教育作为工具变量。probit-工具变量模型的结果表明，金融素养与赌博频率呈显着负相关，而金融教育与赌博频率无显着关系。我们的研究结果表明，通过提高金融素养可以减轻赌博问题，但对于金融教育却无法得出这样的结论。