Financial literacy under international and Brazilian perspective – an analysis of Brazilian family budget and its impact on the National Strategy for Financial Education – ENEF by Bruno Barbosa Luna published by Columbia University in the city of New York (2017).
Financial literacy has proved to be a relevant component to sustainable development. In this sense, international community has embraced policies and discussions to increase awareness regarding this topic. The financial crisis in 2008 showed us that micro decisions could reflect on macroeconomic variables. The theory of economic growth, for instance, Solow-Sawn model, explains that economic growth depends on some factors such as accumulation of capital, work force growth and technology. Regarding accumulation of capital, the level of internal saving is a key component to support the economy, reducing the dependency from external funding, which in turn it is related to how population are willing to spend their income, affecting the level of domestic saving. In this sense, financial literacy programs could contribute in sustainable basis to promote Brazilian social development, through a better allocation of family resources in terms of financial decisions. This study analyzes the international and Brazilian experiences to promote financial literacy. From national perspective, the study analyzes the Brazilian families’ behavior in terms of saving/investment, and how it could affect the Brazilian strategy to implement financial literacy programs countrywide. Based on the Family Budget Research (POF), published by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), this study explains how Brazilian families’ behavior has changed from 1970’s to 2000’s in terms of expenditures. Additionally, this study analyzes the last two POFs , 2002-03 and 2008-09, around 100,000 Brazilian families, in order to understand the differences regarding saving/investment among some social groups, such as gender, families headed by women or men, and race, differences between white and black families, in order to recommend a more suitable strategy for financial literacy, taking into account the Brazilian families characteristics in terms of propensity to save/invest.
