Eficiência socioeconômica e alfabetização financeira: uma análise por envoltória de dados entre países

Abstract

Discussions about economic growth and development aligned with human development have been widely debated in the literature. While growth is commonly associated with the expansion of the economy over a given period of time, development encompasses a series of qualitative improvements in a country's economic structure. In contrast, human development aims to improve people's living conditions and promote the development of their capabilities, covering various aspects such as health, education, food, personal safety, among other factors that impact human well-being. However, available resources are not always used effectively to achieve maximum social and economic benefits. In this context, the application of socioeconomic efficiency analysis allows us to assess whether resources and investments are being used efficiently. Aligned with well-being issues, we also have “Financial Literacy”, which has been recognized worldwide as an important element of economic and financial stability and development. Since the lack of financial knowledge harms individual well-being and the financial capacity of families, it compromises the resources of financial institutions, impedes the growth of the financial sector, delays investment opportunities and contributes to the worsening of the socioeconomic situation of countries. Given these scenarios, the general objective of this study is twofold: the first is to calculate the socioeconomic efficiency of a group of countries, and for this, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied. Secondly, and considering the importance of Financial Literacy, a comparative analysis of the socioeconomic efficiency results was carried out with the Financial Literacy rates taken from the S&P Global FinLit Survey, in order to assess whether countries with better Financial Literacy rates are more socioeconomically efficient. The results found partially validated the hypothesis, since in certain segments they presented positive results and in others negative ones. For countries classified as having high and medium Financial Literacy rates, most efficiency results ranged between maximum and high levels, with the exception of one group with only medium results for both variables. In the group of countries classified as having high Financial Literacy rates and maximum efficiency levels, it was noted that this set of economies are world references on the subject of Financial Education, in addition to the fact that most of them belong to the European continent. On the other hand, for countries classified as having low and very low Financial Literacy rates, efficiency results ranged between the three levels of efficiency: maximum, high and medium. However, it was expected that for this group the results would be only medium efficiency.