Abstract
This study investigates determinants of financial behavior (FB) of university
students at a university in South Africa. It examines whether financial
behavior, confidence, time preferences, risk preferences and financial literacy perceptions
of university students differ by financial literacy level. Data were gathered
via a questionnaire that included personal information, FB, financial perceptions and
financial knowledge responses as well as a multiple price list (MPL) risk preferences
and time preferences experiment tasks. A convenient total sample of 191 students
(females = 53%) participated in the study. A t-test analysis showed that FB, risk
preferences, confidence levels, time preferences and financial literacy perceptions
of university students significantly differed by financial literacy level. Our results
show that university students with low financial literacy levels are more overconfident,
risk loving and impatient; such FB is synonymous with major causes of
financial crises across the world. An OLS regression model analysis showed that the
risk preferences index, financial literacy perception index and confidence significantly
influenced the FB of categorized university students. The risk preference
index significantly influenced debt FB of categorized university students...