Financial capability across generations and technology

Abstract

Financial capability is critical for individuals to survive economic hardship. As the first attempt in the literature, our research explores how being technology savvy is relevant in explaining individ- uals’ short-term and long-term financial behavior. Specifically, we use the 2018 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) to uncover the mixed roles of technology in personal financial manage- ment. Being technology savvy was consistently associated with less desired short-term financial behavior while positively related to good long-term financial behavior after controlling for individual financial constraints and other socio-economic variables. Moreover, our study demonstrates the gen- erational disparity of being technology savvy related to financial behavior.