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This paper investigates whether false confidence, as characterized by a high level of personal mastery and a low level of intelligence (IQ), results in frequent investor trading and subsequent investor wealth erosion across time. Using the National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY79), change in wealth and asset allocation across time is modeled as a function of various behavioral, socio-economic and demographic variables drawn from prior literature. Findings of this research reveal that false confidence is indeed a predictor of trading activity in individual investment assets, and it also has a negative impact on individual wealth creation across time.

We measure the level of financial literacy in Turkey using the OECD/International Network on Financial Education (INFE) methodology and compare our results with the ones obtained in 14 other countries that has used the same methodology. In our sample, financial knowledge and financial behavior levels are lower than the average of the 14 countries, whereas financial attitude level is around the average. The overall financial literacy score, which is a combination of the three aforementioned aspects, is also lower than the average of the 14 countries. We find that financial behavior is positively related with financial knowledge, female respondents are lagging behind the male respondents in financial literacy, and this lag is bigger than those in the 14 countries. Very young respondents and old respondents are less financially literate, financial literacy score is positively related with income, education, and income stability.