Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors

Tim Kaiser, Annamaria Lusardi (), Lukas Menkhoff and Carly Urban ()
Additional contact information
Carly Urban: Montana State University

No 13178, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the rapidly growing literature on the causal effects of financial education programs in a meta-analysis of 76 randomized experiments with a total sample size of over 160,000 individuals. The evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and downstream financial behaviors. Treatment effects are economically meaningful in size, similar to those realized by educational interventions in other domains and are at least three times as large as the average effect documented in earlier work. These results are robust to the method used, restricting the sample to papers published in top economics journals, including only studies with adequate power, and accounting for publication selection bias in the literature. We conclude with a discussion of the cost-effectiveness of financial education interventions.

Keywords: financial literacy; financial education; financial behavior; RCT; metaanalysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G53 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 82 pages
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-exp, nep-fle and nep-ore
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)

Forthcoming - published in: Journal of Financial Economics, 2022, 145 (2), 255-272

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Related works:
Journal Article: Financial education affects financial knowledge and downstream behaviors (2022)
Working Paper: Financial education affects financial knowledge and downstream behaviors (2020)
Working Paper: Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors (2020)
Working Paper: Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors (2020)
Working Paper: Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors (2020)
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