Bireysel emeklilik şirketleri, finansal sistemin önemli kurumsal yatırımcılarından birisidir ve uzun vadeli yatırım perspektifi ile finansal sistemin gelişimine önemli katkı sağlamaktadırlar. Bu çalışmada Uşak Üniversitesi personeli örnekleminde anket yöntemiyle elde edilen veriler ile faktör analizi ve lojistik regresyon analizi kullanılarak finansal okuryazarlık düzeyinin kişilerin bireysel emekliliğe katılımı üzerindeki etkisi araştırılmıştır. Analiz sonucunda temel ve orta düzeyde finansal okuryazarlık düzeyinin kişilerin bireysel emekliliğe katılımı üzerinde anlamlı bir etkiye sahip olmadığı, ileri düzeyde finansal okuryazarlığın ise kişilerin bireysel emekliliğe katılımını negatif etkilediği belirlenmiştir.

1. LITERATURE Individual pension companies are one of the important institutional investors of the financial system and make a significant contribution to the development of the financial system with the long-term investment perspective. The limited number of studies have been conducted on the factors affecting the participation of the persons to the individual pension system. The relevant literature has revealed that financial literacy level positively affects the participation of the persons to the individual pension system. 1.1. RESEARCH SUBJECT The research subject is the effect of financial literacy and demographic characteristics on the participation of the persons to the individual pension in the sample of Usak University staff. 1.2. RESEARCH PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE The research purpose is to analyze the effect of the financial literacy level and demographic characteristics of persons to the participation to the individual pension system. The determination of factors having effect on the individual pension system’s participation is important for determination of the right policies to raise the size of the private pensions system considering the roles of pension funds in the financial system. 1.3. CONTRIBUTION of the ARTICLE to the LITERATURE The limited number of studies have investigated the impact of financial literacy on participation to the individual pension system. Furthermore, this study is one of the early studies researching the impact of financial literacy on individual pensions system’s participation for a sample in Turkey. 2. DESIGN AND METHOD The effect of the financial literacy level and demographic characteristics on the participation of the persons to the individual pension system was investigated through factor analysis and logistic regression analysis. 2.1. RESEARCH TYPE The quantitative research was conducted to examine the effect of financial literacy and demographic characteristics on the persons’ participation to the individual pension system. 2.2. RESEARCH PROBLEMS The effect of basic, medium and advanced level financial literacy levels together with demographic characteristics on participation to the individual pension system were analyzed. 2.3. DATA COLLECTION METHOD The data set was obtained through questionnaire method. 2.4. QUANTITATIVE / QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS The factor analysis and logistic regression analysis were conducted in the context of quantitative analysis. 2.5. RESEARCH MODEL The effect of financial literacy level and demographic characteristics on the participation to the individual pension system was analyzed by the following model. BESUYE: Participation to the individual pension system YAS: Age CALSURE: Employment period FINSURE: Financial market experience TFOY: Basic financial literacy level OFOY: Medium financial literacy level IFOY: Advanced financial literacy level CINS: Gender EGTM: Education level 2.6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES The effect of basic, medium, and advanced financial literacy level together with demographic characteristics on the participation to the individual pension system was researched. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The empirical analysis revealed that individuals’ basic financial literacy levels were quite high and that the ratio of correct responses to the basic financial literacy questions was 88%. The ratio of correct responses to the medium level financial literacy questions was found as 41.3 %. The ratio of correct response to the advanced financial literacy questions was found as 38.4%. The logistic regression analysis disclosed that only advanced financial literacy level negatively affected the participation of the persons to the individual pension system. Furthermore, the men’s participation to the individual pension system was higher, age negatively affected the participation to the individual pension system and employment term positively affected the participation to the individual pension system. 3.1. FINDINGS as a RESULT of ANALYSIS