Ruralidade e alfabetização financeira no interior do Ceará

Abstract

Considering the increasing complexity of daily financial transactions in the face of increasingly challenging macroeconomic panoramas, the evidence of financial illiteracy not only raises important points for policy, but also has implications for the financial behavior of those who live in the rural areas of emerging economies, as they are easy targets for information asymmetry. This study has as locus of research the rural area of the Municipality of Capistrano - Ceará, with a view to analyzing the level of financial literacy of the rural environment, since these have significant participation in the local and Brazilian economy. In fact, it was intended to achieve this objective through the identification of the socioeconomic and demographic profiles of the rural person of Capistranense, the analysis of the financial profile, and the measurement of the level of financial literacy. Data collection took place through direct field demand, with the application of 175 questionnaires in the environment under analysis. As a method, cluster analysis was used, with the hypothesis, constant in the international literature, that the citizen living in rural areas has a low propensity to integrate the group with a high level of financial literacy. The results showed that the respondents have a low level of financial literacy, starting from the formation of three homogeneous groups in the analysis of clusters (low, medium, and high level of financial literacy). These results become relevant for the development of strategies or actions focused on the rural environment and its specificities.