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Financial literacy and anxiety about life in old age: evidence from the USA

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Abstract

This study examines whether financial literacy can help to reduce anxiety about life in old age. We hypothesized that financially literate people are more able to earn income and accumulate assets, leading them to have a less anxious life in old age. On the other hand, less financially literate people rely more on social security to secure themselves in the old age as they are not able to accumulate sufficient assets. By using US survey data, we provide evidence that assets significantly reduce anxiety about life in old age only for people who are more financially literate. For less financially literate people, social security plays an important role in reducing anxiety about life in old age. Besides these, having a child and doing regular exercise also reduced anxiety for all respondents but marital status reduced anxiety in respondents over 40 years of age. The results of our study are robust to measurement of financial literacy and endogeneity problems.

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Acknowledgements

This research used micro data from the Preference Parameters Study of Osaka University’s 21st Century COE Program “Behavioral Macrodynamics Based on Surveys and Experiments” and its Global COE project “Human Behavior and Socioeconomic Dynamics.” We acknowledge the program/project’s contributors: Yoshiro Tsutsui, Fumio Ohtake, and Shinsuke Ikeda. The authors appreciate for the valuable comments of anonymouse referees.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP15KK0083 and JP15K17075; RISTEX JST; and a grant-in-aid from Zengin Foundation for Studies on Economics and Finance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Hiroshima University, 1-2-1, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8525, Japan

    Yoshihiko Kadoya

  2. Graduate School of Economics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan

    Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Alvaro Dominguez

  3. Department of Management Synthesis, Chubu University, 1200 Matsumoto-cho, Kasugai, Aichi, 487-8501, Japan

    Tomomi Hamada

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  1. Yoshihiko Kadoya
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  2. Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan
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  4. Alvaro Dominguez
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Correspondence to Yoshihiko Kadoya.

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Kadoya, Y., Khan, M.S.R., Hamada, T. et al. Financial literacy and anxiety about life in old age: evidence from the USA. Rev Econ Household 16, 859–878 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9401-1

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