The Effects of Financial Education on Financial Literacy and Savings Behavior: Evidence from a Controlled Field Experiment in Dutch Primary Schools

This article reports the results of a controlled field experiment designed to estimate the short‐term effects of a 45‐minute financial education program on the financial literacy and savings behavior of children in Dutch primary schools. Among fifth and sixth graders, the program led to a pre‐ to posttest improvement in financial literacy on almost one of eight questions, with about one‐third of the increase in correctness attributable to the program. It also raised the probability of willingness to save by 4 percentage points. Nonetheless, whereas the program appears effective in respect to q... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Kalwij, Adriaan
Alessie, Rob
Dinkova, Milena
Schonewille, Gea
van der Schors, Anna
van der Werf, Minou
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
Reihe/Periodikum: Journal of Consumer Affairs ; volume 53, issue 3, page 699-730 ; ISSN 0022-0078 1745-6606
Verlag/Hrsg.: Wiley
Schlagwörter: General Economics / Econometrics and Finance / Sociology and Political Science
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26690833
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joca.12241

This article reports the results of a controlled field experiment designed to estimate the short‐term effects of a 45‐minute financial education program on the financial literacy and savings behavior of children in Dutch primary schools. Among fifth and sixth graders, the program led to a pre‐ to posttest improvement in financial literacy on almost one of eight questions, with about one‐third of the increase in correctness attributable to the program. It also raised the probability of willingness to save by 4 percentage points. Nonetheless, whereas the program appears effective in respect to questions that explicitly address program content, its significant effects on financial literacy seem primarily driven by the results for girls, although we cannot reject homogeneous treatment effects with respect to gender.