Abstract

ABSTRACT Focusing on rural household self-employment, this paper analyzes the relation between financial literacy and self-employment in China. More importantly, it tests the mediating role of farmers’ financial ability regarding asset proliferation and borrowing capacity in this relationship. We draw the following conclusions. First, financial literacy has a significant positive impact on the self-employment of poor rural households. Second, financial ability plays an intermediary role in the relation between financial literacy and self-employment. Third, the borrowing ability of rural households has a strong intermediary effect on the relation between objective financial literacy and self-employment.