Key finding: South Africa has no single standard measure of financial literacy, so a dissertation on it must define the construct explicitly, choose a measure on purpose and say what that measure leaves out. Nanziri and Leibbrandt (2018) wrote that in the absence of a standard measure they built an index from survey data on attitudes towards, access to and use of financial services.
What is financial literacy, and why is it a popular dissertation construct?
Financial literacy is a construct studied in economics, accounting, finance, education, psychology and development studies. Its appeal for a South African research report is practical: it has recognised measures, a local evidence base, and designs that fit one academic year, such as a survey of students at your own institution or a secondary analysis of an existing dataset. The danger is vagueness. Authors use the term for knowledge, for skills, for attitudes, for behaviour and sometimes for access to financial products, and an examiner will ask which of these you mean.
The first table below sets out the main sources this guide draws on, so that you can see what each contributes. The site’s guide to the operationalisation of variables table shows how to turn a construct like this one into measurable variables.
| Source and year | What it contributes | How you can use it |
|---|---|---|
| Nanziri and Leibbrandt (2018), South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 21(1) | Built a financial literacy index from data collected over 2005 to 2009 on attitudes towards, access to and use of financial services; found substantial variation by age, education, province and race; demographic characteristics contributed up to 10% of the differences | South African evidence on who is more or less financially literate, and a model of building an index from existing survey data |
| Lusardi and Mitchell (2014), Journal of Economic Literature, 52(1), pp. 5–44 | Draws on surveys to show how much people know, identifies the least financially knowledgeable subgroups and treats financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital | Theory (human capital) and the evidence base for knowledge measures |
| Lusardi and Mitchell (2013), NBER Working Paper 18952 | Reports the wording of three standard knowledge questions on compound interest, inflation and risk diversification | A ready-made short knowledge instrument you can adapt |
| Rossouw and Greeff (2020), South African Journal of Education, 40(2) | A South African study titled “Improving the financial literacy of Grade 8 and/or 9 economic and management sciences teachers in the Western Cape” | An education-sector angle on the construct |
| FinMark Trust, FinScope Consumer and FinScope MSME (website) | The site lists FinScope Consumer and FinScope MSME surveys and a media release for FinScope Consumer South Africa 2025 | A place to look for secondary data on financial behaviour and inclusion |
How do you define it and what are its dimensions?
Pick a definition from a source you can cite and state which dimensions you will measure. The sources above point to three families of dimension:
- Knowledge: understanding of concepts such as compound interest, inflation and risk diversification. Lusardi and Mitchell identify these as three fundamental concepts underlying saving and investment decisions.
- Attitudes, access and use: the dimensions Nanziri and Leibbrandt used to construct their index for South Africa.
- Behaviour: what people actually do, for example budgeting, saving or borrowing. Behaviour is usually measured by self-report or taken from survey items.
A defensible Chapter 1 definition names the dimension you study and keeps the others out of the title. “Financial knowledge of first-year commerce students” is a different study from “financial behaviour of salaried households”. If you need a model for writing the definition itself, the guide to the clarification of concepts section sets out the conceptual and operational steps.
Which theories frame a financial literacy study?
| Theory | Source | What it contributes |
|---|---|---|
| Human capital theory | Lusardi and Mitchell (2014) frame financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital | Explains why people acquire financial knowledge and why gaps persist between groups |
| The life-cycle model of saving | The model on which Lusardi and Mitchell build their account of why knowledge of interest, inflation and diversification matters | Links knowledge to saving and investment decisions over a lifetime |
| Theory of planned behaviour | Ajzen (1991), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp. 179–211 | Frames behaviour such as saving or budgeting as the product of attitudes, norms and perceived control |
Choose one as the main theoretical framework and one as support, and map the constructs to variables in a conceptual framework drawn with every box measured and every arrow labelled with a hypothesis.
What instruments can you use?
For knowledge, the most widely adapted option is the set of three questions designed by Lusardi and Mitchell, reported in their working paper. They cover, in order, compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification through a true-or-false statement about buying a single company stock versus a stock mutual fund. Their original wording uses dollars, so using them in South Africa means rewording the amounts. Illustrative adaptation, not a validated instrument: “Suppose you had R1,000 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: more than R1,020, exactly R1,020, or less than R1,020?” With compound interest the correct answer is “more than R1,020”, because R1,000 grown at 2% a year for five years exceeds R1,104. Score each question as correct or not, giving a total between 0 and 3.
Because you have changed the wording, treat the adapted items as your own instrument: pilot them, report how many respondents answered each correctly, and discuss the limitation. For attitudes, access and use, Nanziri and Leibbrandt’s approach shows that an index can be built from existing survey items. For behaviour, you will normally write items yourself or borrow a published scale, in which case the guides to finding a validated questionnaire and reporting Cronbach’s alpha apply directly.
Which designs and hypotheses fit one academic year?
| Design | Illustrative hypothesis | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-sectional survey of students | Students in a commerce programme score higher on the three knowledge questions than students in a humanities programme | Your own questionnaire, three items plus demographics |
| Association study | Higher financial knowledge is associated with more regular saving among employed graduates | Questionnaire with a saving-behaviour item |
| Intervention (pre-post) | Knowledge scores rise after a short budgeting workshop | The same items before and after |
| Secondary data analysis | Financial inclusion variables differ by province and education level | An existing survey dataset, after checking its variables |
| Qualitative | Participants describe how family obligations shape their saving decisions | Interviews with a defined group |
All hypotheses above are illustrative. A secondary analysis can save you the cost of collecting data, but check the dataset’s questionnaire first: it must contain items that really measure the dimension you defined. The site’s guides to data sources for an accounting dissertation and to getting South African data for a dissertation explain where to look and how to cite datasets.
Where does South African survey data come from?
The FinMark Trust website lists FinScope Consumer and FinScope MSME surveys in its data browser, and its home page carries a media release for FinScope Consumer South Africa 2025 describing how living costs are reshaping borrowing, saving and financial behaviour. Treat those pages as a starting point rather than a dataset: open the survey documentation, look at the questions asked and the sample, and check the terms of access before you plan an analysis around it. Nanziri and Leibbrandt’s article is a worked example of how a researcher turned existing survey items on attitudes, access and use into an index.
Ten researchable titles
These titles are illustrative starting points, each tied to a design above. Narrow each one to a defined population, institution and year before you propose it.
- Financial knowledge among first-year commerce students at a South African university: a three-question survey.
- Differences in financial knowledge between commerce and non-commerce students.
- Financial literacy and saving behaviour among young employed graduates.
- The effect of a budgeting workshop on the financial knowledge of final-year students.
- Financial literacy and the use of formal financial services among small business owners in one municipality.
- Provincial differences in a financial literacy index built from secondary survey data.
- Financial literacy among economic and management sciences teachers: a school-based case study.
- Attitudes towards credit among university students: a theory of planned behaviour approach.
- Parents’ financial literacy and the money habits of learners in one school.
- Financial wellbeing among nurses on a shift schedule: a qualitative study.
What mistakes weaken a financial literacy dissertation?
- Using US wording unchanged, with dollar amounts and US examples.
- Mixing literacy with inclusion, so that access to a bank account is read as knowledge.
- Treating knowledge as behaviour and assuming that a high score means good decisions.
- Generalising from a campus sample to all South Africans.
- Claiming demographic causes from a correlation, when Nanziri and Leibbrandt themselves report that demographics contributed up to 10% of the differences.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard measure of financial literacy in South Africa?
Nanziri and Leibbrandt (2018) wrote that there was no standard measure and constructed an index from data on attitudes towards, access to and use of financial services. Check for more recent instruments before you choose one.
Can I use the three Lusardi and Mitchell questions in a South African study?
Yes, but the original wording uses dollars. If you adapt the amounts to rand, you change the items, so pilot them and report reliability and any limitation.
What is the difference between financial literacy and financial inclusion?
Financial literacy concerns knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour. Financial inclusion concerns access to and use of financial services. Some studies use both, so define each term separately.
Which theory fits a financial literacy dissertation?
Common choices are human capital theory, which treats financial knowledge as an investment, the life-cycle model of saving and the theory of planned behaviour for financial behaviour.
Where can I find South African data on financial behaviour?
The FinMark Trust website lists FinScope Consumer and FinScope MSME surveys, including FinScope Consumer South Africa 2025. Check each survey’s questionnaire before you decide it measures your variable.
Can I do this topic with students as participants?
Yes, but state clearly that your findings describe students at your institution and do not generalise to all South Africans. Obtain ethics clearance first.
Do I need a pilot study?
If you adapt or translate items, yes. A pilot lets you check wording and report reliability from your own sample.
Is financial literacy a good topic for an honours research report?
Yes. It has clear measures, a South African evidence base and designs that fit one academic year, such as a campus survey or a secondary data analysis.
References cited
- Ajzen, I. (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp. 179–211.
- Lusardi, A. and Mitchell, O.S. (2013) The economic importance of financial literacy: theory and evidence. NBER Working Paper 18952.
- Lusardi, A. and Mitchell, O.S. (2014) The economic importance of financial literacy: theory and evidence. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(1), pp. 5–44.
- Nanziri, E.L. and Leibbrandt, M. (2018) Measuring and profiling financial literacy in South Africa. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 21(1).
- Rossouw, M. and Greeff, C. (2020) Improving the financial literacy of Grade 8 and/or 9 economic and management sciences teachers in the Western Cape. South African Journal of Education, 40(2), pp. 1–13.