Financial Literacy: A Review of Government Policy and Initiatives
Over the last two decades there has been robust discussion by many governments and financial communityleaders generally, that financial security can only be achieved when a country’s population is considered to befinancially literate. Hence individuals need to be financially literate if they are to...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Wollongong
2011-06-01
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| Series: | Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ro.uow.edu.au/aabfj/vol5/iss2/7 |
| Summary: | Over the last two decades there has been robust discussion by many governments and financial communityleaders generally, that financial security can only be achieved when a country’s population is considered to befinancially literate. Hence individuals need to be financially literate if they are to make informed decisionsabout savings, investments, debt and most importantly when considering retirement issues. No longer canthere be a reliance on social security in retirement due to the ever increasing ageing population and adeclining tax base worldwide.In both Australia and New Zealand, governments have put structures in place as a result of external evidencesuggesting both populations have questionable levels of financial literacy. Both governments have formulatedpolicies and embarked upon initiatives to address this issue. The strategies and structures used, whilst similar,encompassed some unique elements which makes a comparative investigation and discussion interesting.The outcomes of this research paper highlight that even with similar desired outcomes there can be multiplepathways.The rationale for this paper was the lack of any published academic literature in both Australia and NewZealand that reported on the stated government policies and there subsequent initiatives that related to theimprovement of financial literacy. Whilst structures to address government concerns have been put in place,the ability to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives has proven difficult, due to the sparse nature ofpublicly available information and the lack of access to the survey design, development and analysis. It shouldbe noted that this is an exploratory paper primarily to raise questions rather that provide a critical assessmentof either countries policies.While this research paper primarily seeks to describe and review both the policies and strategies implementedby the Australian and New Zealand governments in respect of financial literacy, additionally, it briefly makesmention of the existing education programs currently on offer. |
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| ISSN: | 1834-2000 1834-2019 |