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The impact of undergraduate personal finance education on individual financial literacy, attitudes and intentions

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  • Paul Gerrans
  • Richard Heaney

Abstract

Financial literacy education features prominently among the policy options available to improve personal financial decision‐making. Notwithstanding calls to expand delivery of financial literacy units at university level, such offerings are relatively rare with little evaluation. We provide an evaluation of the impact on financial literacy, financial attitudes and financial behaviour intentions of a semester unit in personal finance delivered to undergraduates at an Australian university, carefully controlling for confounding effects in the analysis. We report increases in objective and subjective financial literacy and an additional gender effect. Contrary to previous speculation, we do not find overconfidence as an associated outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Gerrans & Richard Heaney, 2019. "The impact of undergraduate personal finance education on individual financial literacy, attitudes and intentions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 177-217, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:59:y:2019:i:1:p:177-217
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12247
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