Percepção de cidadania financeira: proposição de uma medida

Abstract

The term financial citizenship was coined by Leyshon and Thrift (1995) based on the adequacy of the concept of citizenship to the risks faced in a financialized society. For the Central Bank of Brazil financial citizenship is the exercise of rights and duties that allows citizens to manage their financial resources well. However, despite its recognized importance, the debate is still relatively new and there are no finalized, consolidated or consensual understandings on its definition. Thus, this study aims at analyzing the perception of financial citizenship of the population of Rio Grande do Sul. To achieve the objective, 827 questionnaires were applied in 4 cities in the state. These cities were chosen according to the population level and the respondents were approached in places of wide circulation. Through factor analysis, three dimensions are important trainers of Financial citizenship: Inclusion, Financial Literacy and Protection of Financial Consumers. Inclusion is formed by the Financial Inclusion construct, Financial Literacy is formed by the Financial Attitude, Financial Knowledge and Behavior constructs. The third dimension of financial citizenship is the protection of financial consumers, which is composed of the four constructs: Complaint, Security, Transparency and Suitability. With the three standardized dimensions, cluster analysis was applied in order to classify individuals into low and high levels of financial citizenship. The hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using the Ward method. When carrying out the analysis, two clusters were found. The first, called Cluster 0, represents individuals who have a low level of financial citizenship (24.4% of respondents). The second, called Cluster 1, represents those who have a high level (62.8% of respondents). Based on the clusters, it was possible to identify, through difference tests, that only the financial protection dimension did not show significant differences between individuals with high and low level of financial citizenship. This may be an indication that policies for the protection of citizens and the various protection mechanisms designed for this purpose may be achieving the objective of protecting financial consumers, as they are perceived by these users, regardless of the level of citizenship in which they are classified. Then, in order to develop an indicator that defines whether an individual has a high or low level of financial citizenship, the quadratic Euclidean distance from the center of the cluster (average) was used with the three dimensions that represent the proxies to measure financial citizenship. Thus, through the quadratic distance of the responses obtained by the individuals with the center of cluster 0 and with the center of cluster 1, it was possible to determine whether the respondent is closer to the center of cluster 0 (D0 <D1) or the center of the cluster. cluster 1 (D1 <D0). Finally, the influence of dimensions on financial well-being was analyzed. It was identified that the greater the literacy and financial protection, the greater the financial well-being of the citizen.