A Study of Individual Financial Behavior and Financial Literacy under the Development of Digital Financial Technology

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Probit model measurement results

Variable	Lending behavior		Financial behavior		Insurance behavior		Financial counseling
	Ordinary	Soundness	Ordinary	Soundness	Ordinary	Soundness	Ordinary	Soundness
Financial literacy	0.6623*** [0.0776]	0.6623*** [0.0778]	0.3686*** [0.0663]	0.3686*** [0.0662]	0.3527*** [0.0604]	0.3527*** [0.0606]	0.8046*** [0.0708]	0.8046*** [0.0709]
Age	0.0057 [0.0283]	0.0057 [0.0285]	-0.0101 [0.0032]	-0.0101 [0.0033]	-0.0038 [0.0062]	-0.0038 [0.0064]	-0.0054 [0.0022]	-0.0054 [0.0024]
Gender	0.3821*** [0.064]	0.3821*** [0.065]	0.0772*** [0.0612]	0.0772*** [0.0613]	0.1193* [0.0616]	0.1193* [0.0617]	0.0604 [0.0614]	0.0604 [0.0616]
Educational background	0.1131*** [0.0328]	0.1131*** [0.0329]	0.1583 [0.0323]	0.1583 [0.0325]	0.0426** [0.0338]	0.0426** [0.0339]	0.1492 [0.0361]	0.1492 [0.0362]
Family income	0.1904*** [0.0325]	0.1904*** [0.0327]	0.1181*** [0.0215]	0.1181*** [0.0217]	0.1461*** [0.0339]	0.1461*** [0.0338]	0.0707** [0.0251]	0.0707** [0.0255]
Family income	-2.5986*** [0.2508]	-2.5986*** [0.2509]	-1.6851*** [0.2516]	-1.6851*** [0.2518]	-0.8005*** [0.2429]	-0.8005*** [0.2428]	-2.5129*** [0.2485]	-2.5129*** [0.2487]

Regional heterogeneity survey

behavior	(1) Eastern region	(2) Midwest
Finlit	0.1512** (0.055)	-0.0856 (0.1999)
NIIC	0.1249** (0.0522)	0.1605 (0.1743)
importance	0.1826* (0.0905)	0.6437 (0.5111)
Control variable	yes	yes
Regional fixation effect	yes	yes
N	270	50
LR	65.15	28.45
Pseudo R2	0.0558	0.0548
Prob > chi2	0.000	0.1882

Analysis of factors of financial literacy measures and reliability testing

Target layer	Quasi test layer	Index layer	Metric item	Factor load	α coefficient
Financial literacy	Financial consciousness	Financial awareness	Have you learned about the money management products in alipay and wechat	0.754	0.529
			Whether mobile phones download wealth management software	0.769
			The degree of familiarity of college students’ network loans	0.689
			If the money is sufficient, the payment will be paid in installments	0.494
		Consumption awareness	Today will be rich today, tomorrow is tomorrow	0.788
			Money is spent on flowers, and there is no need to finance	0.731
		Financial awareness	Do you know the monthly payment form of online shopping	0.82
			Have you learned about the money management products in alipay and wechat	0.755
	Financial knowledge	Financial accounting	Inflation understanding is correct	0.714	0.826
			Whether the deposit interest is calculated correctly	0.716
			Different types of stock risks are compared to the correct answer	0.584
			The interest rates for different methods are correct	0.636
			Whether the stock investor is right is correct	0.626
			The calculation of the interest rate of the installment is correct	0.552
		Knowledge of credit risk	Credit understanding is correct	0.742
			Whether insurance purchases are correct and risk understanding is correct	0.79
			Is the understanding of bad credit right	0.849
			Understand the rights and obligations after the financial product contract	0.553
	Financial capacity	Financial skills	Using the mobile phone bank app	0.561	0.722
			Do you know how to buy gold	0.792
			Can identify legal and illegal investment channels and product services	0.773
			Will you buy wealth management products on your mobile phone	0.674
		Financial ability	Can you pay the bills on time	0.675
			Will you use alipay and wechat	0.84
			If you need money, you can borrow money from your friends	0.789

Variable descriptive statistics

Variable name	Mean	Standard deviation	Maximum value	Minimum value
Financial accomplishment score	56.21	28.64	71.65	22.84
Lending behavior	0.55	0.55	1	0
Insurance behavior	0.59	0.16	1	0
Financial behavior	0.64	0.43	1	0
Financial counseling	0.71	0.48	1	0
Age	39.64	18.34	59	18
Gender	0.51	0.5	1	0
Educational background	2.81	1.02	5	1
Educational background	2.28	0.88	5	1

The two steps iv probit model estimates the results

variable	First step	Second step
		Lending behavior	Financial behavior	Insurance behavior	Financial counseling
Financial literacy	-	1.0969*** [0.3007]	0.8917*** [0.3166]	0.2822 [0.3006]	2.6891*** [0.3612]
Age	-0.0078*** [0.0006]	0.0069* [-0.0021]	-0.0093* [0.004]	-0.0048 [0.0078]	0.0192*** [0.0033]
Gender	0.0945 [0.0165]	0.3406*** [0.0693]	0.0341*** [0.0599]	0.1267* [0.0603]	-0.1366* [0.0834]
Educational background	0.1645*** [0.0112]	0.0371 [0.0642]	0.0645 [0.0684]	0.0588 [0.0681]	-0.1878** [0.0789]
Family income	0.0792*** [0.0089]	0.1535*** [0.0378]	0.0685* [0.0372]	0.169*** [0.0422]	-0.0945** [0.0451]
Constant term	1.6184*** [0.0687]	-3.3872*** [0.5957]	-2.6119*** [0.5923]	-0.6695 [0.5818]	-5.9412*** [0.7002]
IV	0.1305*** [0.0128]	-	-	-	-
Adjusted R2	0.3561	-	-	-	-
Wald check	-	0.0442	0.0789	0.7865	0.0000

Variable definition, type, and assignment

Variable Type	Variable Name	Variable Property	Variable Definition
Independent Variable	Financial Literacy Evaluation Index	Numerical Type	Index Weight Score
Dependent Variable	Lending Behavior	Virtual Variable	It Happens To Be 1, Whether It’s Equal To 0
	Insurance Behavior	Virtual Variable	It Happens To Be 1, Whether It’s Equal To 0
	Financial Behavior	Virtual Variable	It Happens To Be 1, Whether It’s Equal To 0
	Financial Counseling	Virtual Variable	It Happens To Be 1, Whether It’s Equal To 0
Control Variable	Gender	Virtual Variable	Female=0,Man=1
	Age	Numerical Type	Specific Values, Units: Years Old
	Highest Degree	Sequence Variable	Illiterate/Unknown. Primary School = 2: Primary School = 30. College And Above
	Household Monthly Income	Sequence Variable	RMB 3, 000 Yuan = 1, 300 Yuan = 2, 000 Yuan ~ 1, 000 Yuan = 2, 000 Yuan ~ 1, 000 Yuan

Robustness test

variable	Financial literacy score test				Remove the samples from over 60 years old
	Lending behavior	Financial behavior	Insurance behavior	Financial counseling	Lending behavior	Financial behavior	Insurance behavior	Financial counseling
Financial literacy	0.0248 [0.0035]	0.0197 [-0.0013]	0.019 [0.0043]	0.0461 [0.0084]	0.7107 [0.0742]	0.327 [0.0667]	0.3491 [0.0649]	0.7703 [0.0684]
age	0.0124 [0.0025]	-0.011 [0.006]	-0.0071 [0.0079]	0.0033 [0.0049]	0.0106 [-0.0015]	-0.01 [0.0085]	0.0019 [0.0032]	-0.0056 [0.0045]
gender	0.3922 [0.0554]	0.0791 [0.0585]	0.118 [0.0585]	0.0608 [0.0532]	0.3725 [0.0572]	0.0794 [0.0656]	0.0879 [0.067]	0.0593 [0.061]
Educational background	0.106 [0.0331]	0.1652 [0.0342]	0.0394 [0.0338]	0.1466 [0.0332]	0.1165 [0.0385]	0.166 [0.034]	0.0287 [0.0351]	0.15 [0.0371]
Family income	0.191 [0.0295]	0.111 [0.0277]	0.151 [0.032]	0.0701 [0.0313]	0.1854 [0.0326]	0.104 [0.027]	0.135 [0.0255]	0.1145 [0.0549]
Constant term	-2.588 [0.247]	-1.691 [0.2491]	-0.809 [0.2325]	-2.493 [0.2478]	-3.1 [0.2663]	-1.64 [0.2637]	-0.7328 [0.2415]	-2.3701 [0.2569]
Adjusted R2	0.1139	0.0804	0.052	0.1092	0.1023	0.0525	0.0382	0.0941

Descriptive statistics of financial literacy index

Sample size	Mean value	Standard deviation	Median	Mode number	Minimum value	Maximum value
758	65.14	17.26	69.64	4.98	0	100

Financial literacy heterogeneity survey

Behavior	(1) High financial quality	(2) Low financial literacy
NIIC	0.1702 (0.0851)	0.1083 (0.071)
Importance	0.2838 (0.1395)	0.1202 (0.1393)
Control variable	yes	yes
N	145
LR	49.32	31.25
Pseudo R2	0.0691	0.6737
Prob > chi2	0.0005	0.0008