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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 145 No. 2 2022

Financial education affects financial knowledge and downstream behaviors

Tim Kaiser1,2; Annamaria Lusardi3; Lukas Menkhoff4,5,6; Carly Urban7

1 University of Koblenz and Landau · 2 Universität Koblenz · 3 George Washington University · 4 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin · 5 German Institute for Economic Research · 6 Kiel Institute for the World Economy · 7 Montana State University

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. Many of these experiments are published in top economics and finance journals. 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 robust to accounting for publication bias in the literature. We also discuss the cost-effectiveness of financial education interventions.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.09.022
Volume
145
Issue
2
Pages
255-272
Language
en
Sources
crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

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