Study in West Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

There have many been studies on women’s economic empowerment (WEE), most related to financial literacy (FL). However, in this digital era marked by the emergence of Fintech, FL needs to be expanded into digital financial literacy (DFL), in making good financial decisions, especially regarding Fintech products. Hence, the study aims to investigate the influence of DFL and FL on WEE. In this study, 259 female respondents participated. Using the PLS Structural Equation Modelling, the study found that both DFL and FL had a positive and significant effect on WEE. However, further analysis found that DFL affects all 5 dimensions of WEE. Meanwhile, FL only affects 3 components of WEE. In addition, the results also show that DFL has a much greater influence on WEE compared to FL. These results prove that, in this digital era, FL is not sufficient for making good financial decisions, but more understanding is needed, especially related to digital literacy. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the importance of the DFL variable in the study of WEE, as well as input for the Indonesian government to give more consideration to DFL in making policies related to WEE.