engleski

RESEARCH ON THE FINANCIAL LITERACY ON CAPITAL MARKET AMONG STUDENTS

The capital market has developed to an unprecedentedly high level. The participation on the capital market requires a certain level of financial literacy. Financial literacy is defined as a combination of awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors essential for making sensible financial decisions. Financial literacy plays a major role in the business world as well as in the private sphere of individuals. Nevertheless, not enough attention is given to the education of citizens and improvement of their financial literacy. This study examines students in the city of Varaždin at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI) of the University of Zagreb and their financial literacy, interest in investing in the capital market and starting their own business in the future. The research was conducted among 336 students of all study programs and at all levels of study, and it involved a questionnaire mostly based on the OECD/INFE (2014) Toolkit for measuring financial literacy and inclusion, while some questions were proposed by the authors themselves. The object of this research is to determine the level of financial literacy according to various variables. The research aims to discover how students’ financial knowledge impacts their aversion towards risks as well as their inclination towards investing later in life. Finally, the paper aims to establish a link between students’ inclination towards risks and investment ambitions for the future. The results obtained by this research show that there is a difference in the level of financial literacy between the economics majors and students majoring in other subjects. Furthermore, the results indicate that senior students score higher and demonstrate a higher level of financial literacy than freshman and sophomore students. Considering that in this study there is a correlation between the level of financial literacy, study programme and degree level, it can be concluded that students obtain their financial education and literacy from their study program curricula, which is confirmed by higher scores achieved by economics majors. Although investing in the capital market is the first step in generating alternative sources of income and achieving financial security, the majority of the respondents still expresses no interest in investing in the capital market.

Faculty of Organization and Informatics ; Financial literacy ; Investment ; Education ; Capital market

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