Knowledge for Overcoming Adversity: Gender Analysis of Economic Culture in a Region in North-Western Mexico

Abstract

The interest in economic culture, and consequently in economic and financial literacy, has become increasingly important in the context of the recent global economic crises, as it offers a vision of the set of tools that society has at its disposal in order to face them. A gender analysis contributes to identifying the specific conditions that could affect a vulnerable group of the population: women. The goal of this paper is to analyze economic culture in Baja California, a region in north-western Mexico, at the border with the United States. To that end, a survey was designed and applied to a probability sample of 345 people in this state, to understand: knowledge of daily economic and financial aspects, money management habits, shopping habits, influence of economic socialization and information regarding economic and financial topics, perception of professional education in terms of economic aspects derived from it as well as interest in receiving economic and financial education. Results suggest that the differences found in about habits, social influences and even their role as consumers, are not statistically significant; nevertheless, important differences were found in terms of the level of knowledge, the use of tools, the currency they use for savings and their economic expectations.