WHAT IS THE FINANCIAL LITERACY LEVEL OF ECUADORIAN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS? AN ESSAY TO EVALUATE THEIR PERFORMANCE

University students were evaluated about financial literacy (FL) with a customized survey based on the contributions of many research studies including the OECD toolkit. Demographic and socioeconomic variables were related to three dimensions of FL, financial knowledge (FK), financial behavior (FB) and financial attitude (FA) as the content of this survey. Students with better financial background reached better FL scores and students without this background but strong numeracy formation obtained the maximum FL score as well. The FL valuation index is proposed as the simple average of the addition points in every dimension listed. This document pretends to share the principal findings to extend the discussion and enhance the results, to be used by policymakers as an essential contribution to the FL subject in Ecuador.