Democratisation of Finance: The challenger of Financial Literacy?

Wei is a final-year PhD student of MBS, and her research unveils the flawed financial architect and the complicated social network attached to it from a unique angle of disadvantaged ordinary consumers with inadequate financial literacy.   Current research interests: Personal finance, Financial policy and regulation   Title of thesis: Democratisation of Finance: The challenge of financial literacy?   Thesis abstract:

The contemporary financialised world is like a complex maze where consumers find difficult to navigate. Since early 2000s, major developed countries have joined the global campaign promoting financial literacy which is thought to be able to deliver social as well as private benefits. However, does this represent only a fantasy in theory or a real silver bullet that can solve much of current problems? Through literature review (of political and cultural economy, as well as mainstream economics and finance), research deep into archives (of government documents and media reports), and empirical analysis (of a number of recent mis-selling scandals in the UK), this thesis attempts to present a constructive view of financial democratisation, focusing on how stakeholders, e.g. regulators and the financial services industry, take on the problem of financial literacy particularly when facing market failure.

Supervisor: Professors Karel Williams and Julie Froud