Financial Literacy and Macro-economics

Abstract

Financial literacy, moving to the forefront on account of the economic crisis, is a crucial element of the proper function-ing of any society. Our goal is to identify the indicators of financial literacy in topic-related Hungarian and international literature which can then be used to draw macro-economic conclusions and be tested through Hungary’s example. We have identified four main indicators, which are: (1) income, (2) savings, (3) external funds (loans) and (4) the economy’s demand for cash. A number of criticisms can be raised in connection with the above indicators, most importantly the fact that the perception of financial litera-cy is overly linked to income. In spite of this, all these indicators are conducive to providing information on one of the financial lit-eracy-related issues (self-provision, confidence, planning, long-term thinking, profitability, etc.).