IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v15y2022i11p494-d953255.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Uphill Battle: Financial Education in Romania in the Midst of Societal Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Radu Șimandan

    (Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Beatrice Leuștean

    (Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Răzvan Mihai Dobrescu

    (Department of Economics, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Given Romania’s relatively poor performance from a financial literacy perspective, many public and private entities are currently implementing various initiatives to address this problem. Assuming that financial education projects are a source of insights into broader societal issues, we analyze a sample of financial education projects to discern the issues of societal transformation reflected in their contents. We collected data from financial education websites and analyzed them through qualitative content analysis. We identify and discuss several manifest and latent themes and note the absence of others commonly found in the literature. The emphasis in the manifest themes falls on offering calibrated advice to a public with a relatively low level of financial literacy, prone to unhealthy behaviors such as consumerism, impulse buying, and indebtedness. Several latent concerns concentrate on the changing economic and social landscape, the fear that some traits of national character may hinder the individual appetite for adaptation, and the threat of an economic crisis. The needs of vulnerable groups are rarely addressed, while topics such as the ethical dimension of consumption, environmental and sustainability issues, and gender stereotypes are lacking. We thus find that the financial education initiatives in Romania address an underdeveloped range of topics.

Suggested Citation

  • Radu Șimandan & Beatrice Leuștean & Răzvan Mihai Dobrescu, 2022. "An Uphill Battle: Financial Education in Romania in the Midst of Societal Transformation," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:11:p:494-:d:953255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/11/494/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/11/494/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lauren E. Willis, 2011. "The Financial Education Fallacy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 429-434, May.
    2. Robert J Shiller, 2013. "Finance Contributing to the Good Society," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 77-80, February.
    3. Reinhart, Carmen & Kirkegaard, Jacob & Sbrancia, Belen, 2011. "Financial repression redux," MPRA Paper 31641, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Robert J. Shiller, 2013. "Reflections on Finance and the Good Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 402-405, May.
    5. Jeffery Bray & Nick Johns & David Kilburn, 2011. "An Exploratory Study into the Factors Impeding Ethical Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(4), pages 597-608, February.
    6. Jakhongir Kakhkharov & Alexandr Akimov, 2018. "Financial development in less-developed post-communist economies," Discussion Papers in Finance finance:201801, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    7. Ana C. Santos, 2017. "Cultivating the self-reliant and responsible individual: the material culture of financial literacy," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 410-422, July.
    8. Francisco Jesús Gálvez-Sánchez & Juan Lara-Rubio & Antonio José Verdú-Jóver & Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez, 2021. "Research Advances on Financial Inclusion: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Catherine C Langlois & Bodo B Shlegemilch, 1990. "Do Corporate Codes of Ethics Reflect National Character? Evidence from Europe and the United States," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 21(4), pages 519-539, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bratiloveanu Alexandra & Ignat Nicoleta Daniela & Croitoru Ionuț Marius, 2023. "Investment Risk – Bibliometric Analysis at the Level of EU States," Valahian Journal of Economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 23-38, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. D'Amato, Valeria & Di Lorenzo, Emilia & Piscopo, Gabriella & Sibillo, Marilena & Trotta, Annarita, 2024. "Insurance business and social sustainability: A proposal," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Coskun Yener & Jadevicius Arvydas, 2017. "Is there a Housing Bubble in Turkey?," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 48-73, March.
    3. Handro Paul Ovidiu, 2018. "Opinions Regarding Business Model In The European Banking System," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0, pages 193-197, December.
    4. Andrea Roncella & Ignacio Ferrero, 2022. "The Ethics of Financial Market Making and Its Implications for High-Frequency Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 139-151, November.
    5. Cesar Leandro, Julio & Botelho, Delane, 2022. "Consumer over-indebtedness: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 535-551.
    6. Andrew Smith & Kevin Tennent & Jason Russell, 2022. "The rejection of industrial democracy by Berle and Means and the emergence of the ideology of managerialism," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(1), pages 98-122, February.
    7. Florian Hanke & Jens Lowitzsch, 2020. "Empowering Vulnerable Consumers to Join Renewable Energy Communities—Towards an Inclusive Design of the Clean Energy Package," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-27, April.
    8. Asif, Raheel & Frömmel, Michael, 2022. "Testing Long memory in exchange rates and its implications for the adaptive market hypothesis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 593(C).
    9. Zhang, Cheng & Zhu, Yuyao & Zhang, Limin, 2024. "Effect of digital inclusive finance on common prosperity and the underlying mechanisms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Alessandro Rizzello & Abdellah Kabli, 2020. "Sustainable Financial Partnerships for the SDGs: The Case of Social Impact Bonds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-22, July.
    11. Mario La Torre & Helen Chiappini (ed.), 2020. "Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Finance," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-40248-8.
    12. Dahbi, F. & Carrasco, I. & Petracci, B., 2024. "A systematic literature review on social impact bonds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    13. Gupta, Kartick & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility, competition, and firm value," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Abdellah Kabli & Alessandro Rizzello & Annarita Trotta, 2021. "Roadmapping New Impact Bonds in a Post-COVID World: Insights from Case Studies in the Education Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Gupta, Kartick & Krishnamurti, Chandra, 2023. "Does employees' interest matter more than shareholders’ interest in determining cash management policy?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 568-589.
    16. Nicolai J. Foss, 2012. "Linking Ethics and Economic Growth: a Comment on Hunt," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 6(3), September.
    17. Fritz Breuss, 2016. "The Crisis Management of the ECB," WIFO Working Papers 507, WIFO.
    18. Stijn Claessens & M. Ayhan Kose, 2013. "Financial Crises: Explanations, Types and Implications," CAMA Working Papers 2013-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    19. Thomas A. Hanson, 2022. "Family Communication, Privacy Orientation, & Financial Literacy: A Survey of U.S. College Students," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-13, November.
    20. Elena Kossmann & Mónica Gómez-Suárez, 2018. "Decision-making processes for purchases of ethical products: gaps between academic research and needs of marketing practitioners," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 15(3), pages 353-370, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:11:p:494-:d:953255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.