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The Financial Knowledge Scale: An Application of Item Response Theory to the Assessment of Financial Literacy
Author(s) -
KNOLL MELISSA A. Z.,
HOUTS CARRIE R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6606.2012.01241.x
Subject(s) - financial literacy , item response theory , scale (ratio) , finance , psychology , psychometrics , actuarial science , business , clinical psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
Despite increasing interest in and funding for financial literacy and financial education programs in the private and public sectors, the field of financial literacy still has a major obstacle to overcome: the lack of a widely disseminated measure of financial literacy, developed through rigorous psychometric analyses. In this article, we develop such a measure, focusing specifically on financial knowledge . Using item response theory (IRT), we analyze items from three national surveys, resulting in a psychometrically sound 20‐item financial knowledge scale. By using IRT, the current analysis uses individuals' answers to inform which questions to include in the scale in the first place, rather than simply confirming relationships between these answers and other financially relevant outcomes post hoc. Widespread use of this index and the continued use of modern psychometric techniques would allow for the comparison of financial knowledge, measured consistently and reliably, across studies, populations, and programs.