engleski

Exploring The Effects of Financial Education: Analysis of Saving Behavior of Croatian Consumers

Over the last several years, the issue of financial literacy and financial education seem to have risen on the agendas of both academics and policy makers. The importance of financial education and financial literacy has never been greater than nowadays, when many countries are faced with the ongoing recession. Financially educated and well informed individuals should make better financial decisions and show off better financial behavior. In this paper, we explore saving behavior and socio-demographic characteristics of financial consumers exhibiting low saving behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore saving behavior of consumers living in Croatia and thus help the policymakers in developing better targeted and higher quality programs. Moreover, the objective is to investigate the relationship between financial education and saving behavior to see whether, and in what extent, financial education affects saving behavior. The previous research in this field points to twofold results, whereat some authors found the evidence of positive correlation of savings and financial education, while others show opposite results. There is still no consensus on the effect of financial education on consumer saving behavior. In order to investigate relationship between financial education and saving, linear regression analysis is used. The regression model diagnostics is conducted and the stated model is appropriate. The results of the conducted research indicate that financial education has the statistically significant impact on saving behavior of Croatian financial consumers. However, although significant, the impact is rather low, what is in line with previous research in this field. The policy implications of research findings are discussed.

Financial education ; Financial literacy ; Linear regression model ; Financial behavior ; Saving

Ovaj rad je u potpunosti podržan od strane Hrvatske zaklade za znanost kao dio znanstvenog projekta „Statistical Modelling for Response to Crisis and Economic Growth in Western Balkan Countries“ (STRENGTHS) ; Broj projekta: HRZZ-IP-2013-11-9402 ; Projektno razdoblje: 2014.-2018 ; Voditeljica: prof. dr. sc. Ksenija Dumičić. Sažetak rada objavljen je i u knjizi sažetaka konferencije - Book of Abstracts of 5th Eastern European Economic and Social Development Conference on Social Responsibility (ISSN: 1849-689X). Abstract raspoloživ na: http://www.esd- conference.com/esdAbstracts.html