Work

Financial education and investment attitudes in high schools: evidence from a randomized experiment

Year: 2013

Type: article

Study designs: Randomized Controlled Trial, Clinical Trial

Abstract: We experimentally study the effect of financial education on investment attitudes in a large sample of high school students in Italy. Students in the treated classes were taught a course in finance and interviewed before and after the study, while controls were only interviewed. Our principal result is that the difference-in-difference estimates of the effect of the course are not statistically significant. However, the course in finance reduces the virtual demand for cash and increases the level of financial literacy and the propensity to read (and the capacity to understand) economic articles in both treated and control classes compared with pre-treatment baseline levels. A breakdown of the cognitive process, which is statistically significant for the classes treated, suggests that error and ignorance reduction is sizable and that the progress in financial literacy is stronger in subgroups which exhibit lower ex ante knowledge levels.

Source: Applied Financial Economics

DOI: 10.1080/09603107.2013.767977

Authors: Leonardo Becchetti, Stefano Caiazza, Decio Coviello

Institutions: University of Rome Tor Vergata, HEC Montréal

Language: English

Topic: Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis

Subfield: Accounting

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funders: Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia, Deutsche Bundesbank