A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF EMERGING SUB-TOPICS IN FINANCIAL LITERACY RESEARCH

Abstract

This bibliometric analysis aimed to identify subtopics and trend topics in the field of financial literacy to inform future research. Financial literacy is defined as knowledge and understanding of financial concepts such as managing spending and savings, planning retirement and investments, and increasing wealth or returns on wealth. The study found that women, young, old, and less educated individuals face difficulties understanding financial concepts. Data retrieved from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science database showed 787 articles published in 211 sources between 2001 and 2021. Descriptive and network analysis indicated the most active journals, authors, institutions, countries, and the most highly cited documents in the field of financial literacy. The findings showed that the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Pension Economics & Finance, and Journal of Banking & Finance were the top three scholarly impactful journals in terms of total citations and h-index. Co-word analysis provided insight into potential subtopics in financial literacy, including financial behavior, financial capability, financial education, household finance, personal finance, financial knowledge, retirement planning, financial inclusion, and saving. The study also found that gender differences and financial literacy impact are gaining more importance and have been recognized as trend topics. Furthermore, thematic analysis of keywords revealed that "financial literacy" is the important but not well-developed basic theme, "retirement" is the widely discussed core theme, "financial inclusion" and "pension" are emerging but declining themes, and "consumption" is a niche theme. "Financial well-being" and "gender" were identified as crucial themes that require further discussion.

Overall, this study provides a comprehensive review of research on financial literacy and identifies potential future areas of inquiry