Consumer Informal Financial Education and Retirement Financial Behaviors: Financial Knowledge as a Mediator

Abstract

Whether in developed or developing countries, the aging population has become a worldwide concern, and retirement financial behaviors also receive more attention. This study uses the data of American NFCS in 2018 to study the influence of consumer informal financial education on retirement financial behaviors. Moreover, financial knowledge is taken as a mediator variable to examine whether it will affect the mechanism of action. In addition, the empirical model is replaced, the outliers of income are removed, and heterogeneity analysis among different regions is conducted to ensure the robustness of the results. The empirical results show that consumer informal financial education positively contributes to retirement financial behaviors. Financial knowledge mediates the relationships between consumer informal financial education and retirement financial behaviors. Hence, to improve consumer financial wellbeing, it is necessary to increase financial education and pension publicity, employ various education methods for consumers of different age groups, enrich the variety of pension financial products, and promote scientific and reasonable pension plans.