Measuring financial literacy and market participation

The authors report the results from a survey about financial literacy, financial market participation and numerous factors such as age, income, and education etcetera, which may or may not affect the level of financial literacy and financial market participation among Swedish adults. The study has a qualitative approach and the the survey is conducted on 80 random chosen Swedish individuals in Jönköping. The major findings in this study were the following; Individuals with high financial literacy are more likely to have money invested in stocks and/or funds than individuals with low financial literacy. Education and age affect market participation, whilst the variables gender and income does not. The sample did not show a significant correlation between education and financial literacy. However, taking several underlying factors in to account one can see a pattern between these two variables. For example, individuals with a Master’s Degree have higher knowledge about financial concepts than individuals with a High School education. Age does not have as great impact on financial literacy as education, but there is still a pattern to observe, in general, the older we get the wiser we become. Individuals with higher income, have in general a higher financial literacy than individuals with low income. At last, men in general possess a higher knowledge about financial concepts than women