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Gender Differences in Financial Education: Evidence from Primary School

Author

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  • Matteo Migheli

    (Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis”, Università degli Studi di Torino
    CeRP - Collegio Carlo Alberto)

  • Flavia Coda Moscarola

    (Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis”, Università degli Studi di Torino
    CeRP - Collegio Carlo Alberto)

Abstract

Today, financial and economic education is a primary issue in academia and among policy makers, and there is great interest towards programmes that are able to boost it. In this paper, we test whether a programme (“treatment”) of financial education on savings, targeted to children aged 8 and 9 is effective and to what extent. We measure the interest rate required by the children before and after the treatment to accept postponing a reward, computing its variation and comparing this with that of a control group. We find evidence that the overall initiative is helpful in decreasing the level of impatience of children and the number of inconsistent choices of boys. Our findings invite to reflect on the gender neutrality of programmes of financial education.

Suggested Citation

  • Matteo Migheli & Flavia Coda Moscarola, 2017. "Gender Differences in Financial Education: Evidence from Primary School," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 321-347, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:decono:v:165:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10645-017-9300-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10645-017-9300-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Boggio, Cecilia & Coda Moscarola, Flavia & Gallice, Andrea, 2020. "What is good for the goose is good for the gander?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2020. "Financial education in schools: A meta-analysis of experimental studies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Adriaan Kalwij & Rob Alessie & Milena Dinkova & Gea Schonewille & Anna van der Schors & Minou van der Werf, 2019. "The Effects of Financial Education on Financial Literacy and Savings Behavior: Evidence from a Controlled Field Experiment in Dutch Primary Schools," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 699-730, September.
    4. Carlsson Hauff, Jeanette & Hermansson, Cecilia, 2023. "“Buy him some Tesla stocks for his baptism”: Gender differences among young savers," Working Paper Series 23/12, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance, revised 25 Jan 2024.
    5. Zhou, Yang & Yang, Manfang & Gan, Xu, 2023. "Education and financial literacy: Evidence from compulsory schooling law in China," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 335-346.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Children; Financial and economic literacy; Savings; Field study;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles

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