The Common and Country-Specific Factors of Financial Literacy Between Korea and the U.S. High School Students

초록

This research contributes to the relatively unstudied filed of research of national comparisons of the financial literacy of students by measuring the financial literacy of Korean high school students and comparing the results with those of U.S. high school students. We find that the mean score of Korea is between those with and without FFFL in the U.S. as expected from the fact that Korean students have not learned any FFFL curriculum yet. However, Korean students’ mean score is much closer to those with FFFL compared to those without FFFL. When we compare students’ performance between the two countries by an individual item, the difference might result from educational background, cultural difference and a translation bias. In this regard, we categorize forty items into several contents using content coverage for FFFL, National Standards in Personal Finance and National Standards in Economics, and find that Korean students tend to show a relative strength in the content coverage such as earning income and income & careers. We also compare the financial literacy in terms of cognitive level, and find Korean students show relatively strong financial literacy at the cognitive level of knowledge but show relatively weak financial literacy at the higher cognitive levels such as comprehension and application.