Financial education in schools: A meta-analysis of experimental studies

Abstract

We study the literature on school financial education programs for children and youth via a quantitative meta-analysis of 37 (quasi-) experiments. We find that financial education treatments have, on average, sizeable impacts on financial knowledge (+0.33 SD), similar to educational interventions in other domains. Additionally, we document smaller effects on financial behaviors among students (+0.07 SD). When restricting the sample to 18 randomized experiments average effect sizes are estimated to be about 0.15 SD units on financial knowledge and 0.07 SD units on financial behaviors. These results are robust irrespective of the metaanalytic method used and when accounting for publication bias. Subgroup analyses show the beneficial effect of more intensive treatments, albeit with decreasing marginal returns. JEL-Classification: I21 (analysis of education), A21 (pre-college economic education), D14

Consumer financial education and risky financial asset holding in China

“…Benefits of financial education for consumers are documented in previous research (Asarta, Hill & Meszaros 2014;Brown et al, 2016;Clark, Lusardi & Mitchell, 2017;Kaiser & Menkhoff, 2019;Kim & Xiao, 2020;Lusardi, 2019;Miller et al, 2015;Urban et al 2020). Recent meta-analysis verified the positive effects of financial education on financial literacy and behaviors (Kaiser & Menkhoff, 2017Miller et al, 2015).…”

Economic competence in early secondary school: Evidence from a large-scale assessment in Germany

“…While there is no systematic review on the effect of economic education on increases in economic literacy, knowledge or competence, a meta-analysis of a large body of work on personal financial education in schools exists (see Kaiser and Menkhoff 2018). Comparing the size of the gender gap to the weighted average effect reported in 14 randomized experiments (RCTs) and 17 quasi experiments shows that the mean difference is equivalent to twenty hours of instruction (at average delay in measurement, class size, and student characteristics) (cf.…”

Money matters

“…This approach can build financial knowledge at the same time as learning about other school subjects. Overall, it is crucial that these foster critical thinking, attitudes and behaviour (Kaiser and Menkhoff, 2018;Amagir et al, 2018).…”