Author(s) :

Sophia Pientka.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Youth financial access is increasingly recognized as a contributor to economic participation and longterm development, yet youth perspectives remain largely absent from global financial inclusion research, which often relies on technical indicators such as account ownership or product usage. This study examines how youth aged 16 to 21 across twenty-four countries define financial freedom and describe the social, cultural, and institutional conditions shaping their economic agency. Using qualitative openresponse survey data from 60 participants, responses were manually coded into eight thematic categories capturing interconnected dimensions of youth financial access, including definitions of financial freedom, barriers to financial independence, cultural and family expectations, financial literacy and education, perceived opportunities, policy and systemic support, and proposed reforms. Across regions, youth consistently framed financial access as a foundation for autonomy and decision-making rather than as a purely technical condition. Regional contrasts emerged in the sources of constraint, with respondents from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa emphasizing structural barriers such as labormarket instability, limited institutional support, and family financial obligations, while respondents from North America and Western Europe more frequently cited gaps in financial literacy and uncertainty about opportunity pathways. Across all regions, financial agency was described as socially embedded, with autonomy often negotiated through family expectations rather than exercised independently. These findings suggest that prevailing financial inclusion metrics may overlook dimensions of access central to youth lived experience and underscore the value of incorporating youth-defined perspectives into research and policy frameworks concerned with economic participation.