I Am So Tired! I Don’t Know What to Do! Survey Fatigue and Financial Literacy: Results from a Randomized Experiment

Anna Chernesky, Kim P. Huynh and Marcel C. Voia

Staff Working Papers from Bank of Canada

Abstract: Cross-country evidence finds that there are low levels of financial literacy. Financial literacy is often measured using the “Big Three” questions about interest rates, inflation, and risk. These questions are usually part of a longer survey. Respondents in long surveys may suffer survey fatigue and have lower quality responses. Therefore, the placement of the questions (and survey fatigue) may play a role in the results. We use a randomization of question placement to estimate the causal effect on financial literacy results. We find that when financial literacy questions are placed at the end of a survey, respondents are more likely to answer “Don’t know.” The increase in “Don’t know” responses comes largely at the expense of correct responses. We find that this leads to a drop in financial literacy by 5%-15%. This research suggests a measure of financial literacy that is adapted to account for survey length.

Keywords: Models and tools; Econometric; statistical and computational methods; Money and payments; Cash and bank notes; Digital assets and fintech; Payment and financial market infrastructures; Retail payments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 C83 D12 G53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2026-03
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bca:bocawp:26-5

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