Financial literacy in Southern Brazil: Modeling and invariance between genders

Financial literacy is an essential attribute that allows people to reach a successful financial state. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a model to measure financial literacy, testing invariance in the proposed measure from three scales: financial knowledge, financial attitude and financial behavior. In this sense, a survey was conducted with 991 individuals who live in southern Brazil. For an analysis of the collected data, Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) was employed. The valid model indicates that financial literacy is measured as a combination of financial behavior, attitudes and knowledge. In addition, the tests indicated that this model is adequate for both male and female. However, male individuals showed a higher level of financial literacy on average compared to females.