Financial Knowledge and Financial Resilience in Greece

We examine the determinants of financial knowledge in Greece, using a nationally representative sample of adults from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) in 2017. We approximate financial knowledge via two questions, capturing the understanding of financial risk and risk diversification. We find a notable gender difference in financial knowledge in the magnitude of 17-28% in favour of males. Among the factors explaining financial knowledge and the related gender gap, we find that local economic and financial sector development are positively related to financial knowledge and negatively related to the unexplained component of the gender. The prevalence of strong local stereotypes demeaning the role of females in society and higher gender wage gaps by region are negatively related to financial knowledge and explain a large fraction of the gender knowledge gap. We find that less more financially literate women are more likely to be financially resilience, and they are less likely to seek financial assistance from friend and relatives and/or find themselves below the poverty line seeking assistance.