Financial literacy and financial education: The role of irreversible costs
研究了家庭投资金融教育的决策，发现教育成本的不确定性和不可逆性会导致家庭推迟投资，这解释了“金融素养悖论”。
Financial literacy is a specific “asset” and its achievement may imply irreversible costs. These elements affect the household’s decision to invest in financial education. To explore the issue we use a stochastic dynamic model of portfolio choice in which the cost of financial education is sunk. We show that education costs, uncertainty and irreversibility affect household’s choice to either exercise the option or defer to the future the decision to invest in financial education. This result may provide an explanation to the so-called ‘financial literacy paradox’. • Financial literacy (FL) is a specific “knowledge asset”. • Spending on financial education (FE) is an investment for household. • Investing in FE improves FL, but this implies irreversible education costs. • A stochastic dynamic model is used to study the household decision. • Irreversibility induces households to postpone investment in FE. • This result provides an explanation to the so-called ‘financial literacy paradox’.