Although financial literacy becomes increasingly important in more and more financialised world, and despite broad-based financial education interventions, consumers still display large shortcomings ...in the literacy. In this study, using multivariate linear regression and a nationally representative sample of adult Poles (N=1,067), we test some little-studied potential determinants of financial literacy with the purpose to further explain low financial literacy levels. We found that respondents who are more interested in financial domain, have less difficulty in understanding information supplied by means of numbers, and report more learning from own mistakes are at the same time more financially literate, even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Possible implications regarding the role of these factors for financial education are discussed.
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CEKLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, UL, UM, UPUK
Capital structure decisions in firms and factors determining them still belong to the most challenging research issues that deserve more empirical studies. The recent global crisis has put the ...subject into a new perspective as it was clearly related to debt issues. Using panel data and multi factor regression procedure we investigated the diversified sample of almost 4000 public and non-public firms operating in Poland over 2006–2011 period to verify the degree to which the most significant traditional firm-specific factors explain their capital structures. Specifically, our study was aimed at examining the potential differences in the investigated relationships in the pre-crisis years as compared to the crisis ones. We confirmed the previous findings of other researchers concerning the impact profitability and size have on leverage. We showed also that the latest global crisis did not influence significantly capital structure selection patterns observed in our sample despite visible changes in the financial performance of the investigated firms. However, our evidence is inconclusive in terms of the verification of two classic capital structure theories: trade-off and pecking order. Some of our empirical findings may be of a practical importance as they can indicate some desired rearrangements in the institutional environment of firms, including financial markets, and suggest the appropriate directions for the potential policy programs.
The article presents research findings on capital structure and financial risk changes in Polish companies during the global economic crisis of 2007–2008. Authors evaluated financial data for 4188 ...companies, both listed and unlisted within particular sectors. The whole population of companies was split into two parts based on the average value of the debt ratio calculated for pre-crisis years (2005–2007). The first group was composed of companies with average debt ratio below industry norm expressed in sector mean value of the debt ratio. These companies were assumed to have reserve debt capacity. The second group consisted of companies with average debt ratio above industry norm expressed in sector mean value of the debt ratio. These companies were assumed to have not reserve debt capacity.
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