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Mathematics in Education, Research and Applications (MERAA), 2016(2), 1


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Received 2016-06-23 ǀ Accepted 2016-07-08 ǀ Published online 2016-10-30
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.15414/meraa.2016.02.01.29-35

Impact of education on the ability to use mathematical tools to solve financial tasks. A case study of Slovakia

Janka Drábeková, Soňa Švecová
Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovak Republic

Article Fulltext (PDF), pp. 29–35

Between financial literacy and mathematics has been found a high correlation according OECD study. In the Slovak Republic, relative performance in financial literacy was lower than expected at all levels of mathematics performance. The aim of the paper was to examine the impact of education focus on the ability to use mathematical tools to solve financial tasks on a sample of students from Slovakia. The examined sample consisted of 103 students from two faculties of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. We performed a questionnaire consisted of 7 multiple choice questions (financial tasks according to ISCED 2, ISCED 3A). We found statistically significant differences in the answers of respondents according to their university education focus (economic, non-economic). The most problematic area of the questionnaire was to calculate value added tax.

Keywords: numerical skills, financial literacy, education focus, university students, Slovakia
JEL Classification: D10, D35, M34