Sustainable financial education and consumer life satisfaction

Abstract

Sustainable financial education is defined as the continuous input of money and time on financial knowledge education after formal schooling. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of sustainable financial education on consumer life satisfaction. Utilizing the dataset of Household Consumer Finance of Chinese Urban Residents in 2012 by the China Financial Research Center of Tsinghua University, the variable of sustainable financial education is constructed through the variables of the necessity of financial education, the money spent on financial education, and the time spent on financial education. To improve the estimation results, order probit regression is utilized. The results indicate that financial education is significantly positive to consumer life satisfaction only for a consumer with higher education. Consumers who regard financial education to be of high necessity will feel more satisfied. The results also show that consumers who spend more money and time on financial education after formal schooling will be more satisfied. Moreover, the sustainable impacts of financial education on consumer life satisfaction are verified. In addition, this study provides empirical evidence that suggests that sustainable financial education positively contributes to consumer life satisfaction. The results have implications for policymakers to take measures in enhancing sustainable financial education to improve consumer life satisfaction.