Paper title: Validating financial literacy measurement in the OECD/INFE 2023 survey: Evidence from a single country context
Authors: 
Laivi Laidroo - Department of Economics and Finance, TalTech
Argo Jentson - Department of Economics and Finance, TalTech

Abstract:

Despite the widespread use of results from the OECD/INFE International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy, psychometric testing of this instrument has remained modest. We analyse three distinct latent constructs (financial behaviour, attitude and knowledge) underlying financial literacy and evaluate the validity of the overall financial literacy construct using Estonian data from the OECD/INFE 2023 survey. By applying item response theory models and structural equations modelling, we provide comprehensive insights into the psychometric properties of the instrument. Our results indicate that the OECD/INFE 2022 instrument performs sufficiently well from a psychometric perspective when evaluating the financial knowledge scale. The performance of the financial attitude scale could be improved by broadening the scale, while the financial behaviour scale requires quite significant modifications to provide more valid estimates. The current setup of the OECD/INFE instrument, which aggregates financial knowledge, attitude, and behaviour scores into a separate financial literacy score, did not perform as well as expected and appears to require further validity testing in different countries and using different aggregation approaches. The best-fit model indicates that financial behaviour is driven by financial attitudes and knowledge, with financial attitudes having almost twice as strong impact on behaviour.

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