Financial Literacy of the Self-Employed: Evidence from the OECD Financial Literacy Surveys

This study examines whether self-employed individuals differ from wage-employed workers in financial literacy and its components. Using microdata from the OECD/INFE 2023 Adult Financial Literacy Survey across 25 countries, we compare overall financial literacy, financial knowledge, financial behavior, and financial attitudes while controlling for individual characteristics and country fixed effects. We further assess regional heterogeneity between advanced and emerging/developing economies and test robustness through entrepreneurial financial literacy measures. The results show that self-employment is not associated with higher overall financial literacy. In advanced economies, no systematic gap emerges, whereas in emerging and developing economies, self-employed individuals display lower financial literacy, mainly driven by weaker financial knowledge and, to a lesser extent, financial behavior. Robustness analyses suggest a more nuanced pattern: self-employed individuals in advanced economies may possess stronger entrepreneurial-specific financial competencies, although these do not translate into higher general financial literacy.