Chen Fuzhong, Yu Di, Sun Zijun
The Academy of China Open Economy Studies, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China.
School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China.
Heliyon. 2022 Dec 30;9(1):e12713. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12713. eCollection 2023 Jan.
The growing economic uncertainty makes consumers realize the importance of financial preparedness and management ability. Based on the U.S. National Financial Capability Study dataset from 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018, this study explores the nexus between consumer financial knowledge and financial behaviors of credit card use. The results indicate that financial knowledge positively affects consumer credit card ownership and desirable financial behaviors of credit card use, and is negatively related to undesirable credit card behaviors. The results are robust to different regression methods and after removing income outliers. The heterogeneity test shows that financial knowledge cannot enhance desirable credit card behaviors because of the income limitations in the low-income group. Therefore, there are implications for policymakers, financial sectors, and consumers to improve consumers' usage of credit cards and cultivate proper consumption habits by enhancing consumer financial knowledge.
日益增长的经济不确定性使消费者意识到财务准备和管理能力的重要性。基于2009年、2012年、2015年和2018年的美国国家金融能力研究数据集，本研究探讨了消费者金融知识与信用卡使用金融行为之间的联系。结果表明，金融知识对消费者信用卡持有量和理想的信用卡使用金融行为有积极影响，与不良信用卡行为呈负相关。这些结果在不同的回归方法下以及去除收入异常值后都是稳健的。异质性检验表明，由于低收入群体的收入限制，金融知识无法增强理想的信用卡行为。因此，这对政策制定者、金融部门和消费者都有启示，即通过增强消费者金融知识来改善消费者信用卡使用情况并培养适当的消费习惯。
