It's never too late to be financially literate: Evaluating a financial education intervention for adults in Italy

IF 2.5 3区经济学 Q3 BUSINESS

Journal of Consumer Affairs Pub Date : 2024-05-28 DOI:10.1111/joca.12592

Gabriele Iannotta, Marta Cannistrà, Tommaso Agasisti

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Abstract

Financial education represents a powerful tool for improving economic literacy of citizens. This paper presents results from an experiment providing a group of 136 workers in an Italian university (administrative staff) an online, synchronous course. Classes were organized in 5 sessions of 2h each and covered basic topics about personal finance. The effectiveness of the course is assessed through a rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT). In addition to the analysis of improvements in financial knowledge, financial self-efficacy and the role of prior attitudes and behaviors were explored. Participants obtained post-test scores statistically higher than individuals in the control group, with an average effect size of 0.55 SD. The effect is particularly relevant for participants starting with low levels of financial knowledge. Moreover, two novel findings emerge: financial self-efficacy increases (0.51 SD) after the course, and pre-treatment individuals' financial attitudes and behaviors shed further light on the financial learning process.

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掌握财务知识永远不晚：评估意大利成人财务教育干预措施

金融教育是提高公民经济素养的有力工具。本文介绍了一项实验的结果，该实验为意大利一所大学的 136 名工作人员（行政人员）提供了在线同步课程。课程分为 5 节，每节 2 小时，涵盖了个人理财的基本主题。课程的有效性通过严格的随机对照试验（RCT）进行评估。除了分析财务知识方面的改进外，还探讨了财务自我效能以及先前态度和行为的作用。据统计，参加者在测试后获得的分数高于对照组的个人，平均效应大小为 0.55 SD。这种效应对于金融知识水平较低的参与者尤为重要。此外，还有两个新发现：课程结束后，财务自我效能感增加（0.51 SD）；治疗前个人的财务态度和行为进一步揭示了财务学习过程。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Consumer Affairs Multiple-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

17.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： The ISI impact score of Journal of Consumer Affairs now places it among the leading business journals and one of the top handful of marketing- related publications. The immediacy index score, showing how swiftly the published studies are cited or applied in other publications, places JCA seventh of those same 77 journals. More importantly, in these difficult economic times, JCA is the leading journal whose focus for over four decades has been on the interests of consumers in the marketplace. With the journal"s origins in the consumer movement and consumer protection concerns, the focus for papers in terms of both research questions and implications must involve the consumer"s interest and topics must be addressed from the consumers point of view.