Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy and Sustainability in Small-Scale Entrepreneurship

The importance of a good level of financial literacy (FL) has long been recognized both in academia (Atkinson et al. 2007, Lusardi -Mitchell 2011, Lusardi-Tufano 2015) and by policy makers and international bodies (OECD 2009 and various years, World Bank 2012 and various years, EU Commission 2012 and Eurostat, various years) with reference both, in general, to the population as a consumer, and to minor entrepreneurship. To this has been added, in more recent times, the one on Digital literacy (DL) and, in cascade, on Financial digital literacy (FDL) [OECD 2018] as a consequence of the disruptive impact of technology on every aspect of economic and social life that now manifests itself in every context of a globalized world Finally, the theme of sustainability - declined in the environmental domain due to the use of natural resources, pollution, and its effects; in the social domain due to the protection of individual rights and collective well-being; and in the economic domain due to the significance of corporate and institutional governance - has entered vigorously among the priorities that must guide the work of people, economic organizations and non-profit and governments of countries and international communities. As stated by the OECD Recommendation on Financial Literacy (OECD, 2020) "national strategies for financial literacy should be based on relevant evidence and analysis in order to determine policy priorities and objectives, and to ensure that they remain relevant and up-to-date. Collecting reliable and internationally comparable data to measure financial literacy levels of populations is a crucial way to develop and evaluate effective financial education policies and programmes", it is necessary to direct more research on their empirical evidence. The same need can be extended to DL, FDL and Sustainability. This paper addresses the need highlighted above for more research based on empirical evidence by examining data from the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Financial Authorities' Surveys on financial literacy and digitalization, based on a methodology developed by the OECD's International Network for Financial Education (INFE). The questionnaire provides elements to assess the level of sustainability consciousness too. The research goal is to analyse microenterprises’ levels of FL, of FDL, and of Sustainability consciousness and to study if there are meaningful relations between the three variables.