IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v78y2020ics0272775718303054.html

Experiential financial education: A field study of my classroom economy in elementary schools

Author

Listed:
  • Batty, Michael
  • Collins, J. Michael
  • O’Rourke, Collin
  • Odders-White, Elizabeth

Abstract

My Classroom Economy is a simulated economy where students have the opportunity to engage in financial decisions on a daily basis. It provides financial literacy instruction without requiring significant classroom time, and is relatively simple for teachers to implement. Compared to schools where My Classroom Economy was delayed or never implemented, students showed strong improvements in financial knowledge. Compared to a traditional lecture-based curriculum, students showed similar gains in learning. Based on standardized math test scores, there was no substitution away from core school curriculum after the program began. Experiential financial education appears to be an effective strategy to teach financial literacy, even at lower grade levels. It is also a relatively low-cost approach that does not require extensive teacher preparation.

Suggested Citation

  • Batty, Michael & Collins, J. Michael & O’Rourke, Collin & Odders-White, Elizabeth, 2020. "Experiential financial education: A field study of my classroom economy in elementary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:78:y:2020:i:c:s0272775718303054
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718303054
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hunt Allcott, 2015. "Site Selection Bias in Program Evaluation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1117-1165.
    2. Laura Choi, 2009. "Bank accounts and youth financial knowledge: connecting experience and education," Community Development Working Paper 2009-07, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    3. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    4. Rupp, Nicholas G., 2014. "Teaching economics with a bag of chocolate: A classroom experiment for elementary school students," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 16(PB), pages 122-128.
    5. Melissa A. Z. Knoll & Carrie R. Houts, 2012. "The Financial Knowledge Scale: An Application of Item Response Theory to the Assessment of Financial Literacy," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 381-410, September.
    6. J. Michael Collins & Elizabeth Odders-White, 2015. "A Framework for Developing and Testing Financial Capability Education Programs Targeted to Elementary Schools," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 105-120, March.
    7. Tisha L. N. Emerson & Beck A. Taylor, 2004. "Comparing Student Achievement across Experimental and Lecture-Oriented Sections of a Principles of Microeconomics Course," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 672-693, January.
    8. Webley, Paul & Nyhus, Ellen K., 2006. "Parents' influence on children's future orientation and saving," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 140-164, February.
    9. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    10. Melody Harvey, 2019. "Impact of Financial Education Mandates on Younger Consumers' Use of Alternative Financial Services," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 731-769, September.
    11. Casey Totenhagen & Deborah Casper & Kelsey Faber & Leslie Bosch & Christine Wiggs & Lynne Borden, 2015. "Youth Financial Literacy: A Review of Key Considerations and Promising Delivery Methods," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 167-191, June.
    12. Michael Batty & J. Michael Collins & Elizabeth Odders-White, 2015. "Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Financial Education on Elementary School Students' Knowledge, Behavior, and Attitudes," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 69-96, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Veronica Frisancho, 2023. "Is School-Based Financial Education Effective? Immediate and Long-Lasting Impacts on High School Students," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(651), pages 1147-1180.
    2. Tommaso Agasisti & Alessio D'Ignazio & Gabriele Iannotta & Angela Romagnoli & Marco Tonello, 2024. "As soon as possible: the effectiveness of a financial education program in Italian schools," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1464, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Ginevra Buratti & Alessio D'Ignazio, 2024. "Improving the effectiveness of financial education programs. A targeting approach," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 451-485, June.
    4. Tornino, Janelee & Ferdinez, Emil, 2025. "Financial Literacy, Behavior, and Challenges in Teaching: An Insight for a Literacy Program," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(7), pages 2932-2965, July.
    5. Zhu, Alex Yue Feng, 2025. "Unlocking financial literacy with machine learning: A critical step to advance personal finance research and practice," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Cannistrà, Marta & De Beckker, Kenneth & Agasisti, Tommaso & Amagir, Aisa & Põder, Kaire & Vartiak, Lukáš & De Witte, Kristof, 2024. "The impact of an online game-based financial education course: Multi-country experimental evidence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 825-847.
    7. Agasisti, Tommaso & D’Ignazio, Alessio & Iannotta, Gabriele & Romagnoli, Angela & Tonello, Marco, 2025. "Financial literacy calls the roll — The effectiveness of a financial education program in Italian schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Gabriele Iannotta & Marta Cannistrà & Tommaso Agasisti, 2024. "It's never too late to be financially literate: Evaluating a financial education intervention for adults in Italy," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 397-431, June.
    9. Man Yao & Tori I. Rehr & Erica P. Regan, 2023. "Gender Differences in Financial Knowledge among College Students: Evidence from a Recent Multi-institutional Survey," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 693-713, September.
    10. Corsini, Lorenzo & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia, 2021. "Economics education and financial literacy acquisition: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    11. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim, 2024. "Digital Interventions to Increase Financial Knowledge: Evidence from a Pilot RCT," IZA Discussion Papers 16811, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Joana Elisa Maldonado & Kristof De Witte & Koen Declercq, 2022. "The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1439-1464, March.
    13. Valentina Maria Andreucci & Alessio D'Ignazio & Francesca Festa & Marialucia Longo & Francesco Rossetti, 2025. "Experiential financial education. Assessing the effectiveness of a Banca d'Italia museum exhibition," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 943, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim, 2024. "Financial Education or Incentivizing Learning-By-Doing? Evidence from an RCT with Undergraduate Students," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    15. Frisancho, Veronica & Herrera, Alejandro & Prina, Silvia, 2023. "Can a mobile-app-based behavioral intervention teach financial skills to youth? Experimental evidence from a financial diaries study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 595-614.
    16. Luis Oberrauch & Tim Kaiser, 2024. "Financial Education or Incentivizing Learning-by-Doing? Evidence from an RCT with Undergraduate Students," CESifo Working Paper Series 11187, CESifo.
    17. Piza, Caio & Furtado,Isabela & Amorim, Vivian De Fatima, 2023. "Experimental Evaluation of a Financial Education Program in Elementary and Middle School Grades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10511, The World Bank.
    18. Sconti, Alessia, 2022. "Digital vs. in-person financial education: What works best for Generation Z?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 300-318.
    19. Kaiser, Tim & Oberrauch, Luis, 2021. "Economic education at the expense of indoctrination? Evidence from Germany," EconStor Preprints 245801, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    20. Sconti, Alessia & Caserta, Maurizio & Ferrante, Livio, 2024. "Gen Z and financial education: Evidence from a randomized control trial in the South of Italy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 112(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Panu Kalmi, 2018. "The Effects of Financial Education: Evidence from Finnish Lower Secondary Schools," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 47(2-3), pages 353-386, July.
    2. Joana Elisa Maldonado & Kristof De Witte & Koen Declercq, 2022. "The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1439-1464, March.
    3. Friedrich, Sarah & Pauly, Markus, 2018. "MATS: Inference for potentially singular and heteroscedastic MANOVA," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 166-179.
    4. Hossain, Marup & Songsermsawas, Tisorn, 2025. "Adapting to Thrive: Training and Access to Finance to Reduce Climate Vulnerability Among Smallholder Farmers in Nepal," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 361170, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Hagemann, Andreas, 2019. "Placebo inference on treatment effects when the number of clusters is small," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 213(1), pages 190-209.
    6. Gric, Zuzana & Ehrenbergerova, Dominika & Hodula, Martin, 2022. "The power of sentiment: Irrational beliefs of households and consumer loan dynamics," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Isabella Giorgetti & Matteo Picchio, 2021. "One billion euro programme for early childcare services in Italy," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 460-492, July.
    8. James G. MacKinnon & Morten Ørregaard Nielsen & Matthew D. Webb, 2023. "Fast and reliable jackknife and bootstrap methods for cluster‐robust inference," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(5), pages 671-694, August.
    9. Brandyn F. Churchill & Laura E. Henkhaus & Emily C. Lawler, 2025. "Effect of vaccine recommendations on consumer and firm behavior," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 125-150, January.
    10. von Hippel, Paul T. & Bellows, Laura & Osborne, Cynthia & Lincove, Jane Arnold & Mills, Nick, 2016. "Teacher quality differences between teacher preparation programs: How big? How reliable? Which programs are different?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 31-45.
    11. Sediq Sameem & Shahdad Naghshpour, 2022. "The Relevance of Homicide Rate Convergence to Public Policy in the United States," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(2), pages 840-851.
    12. Azémar, Céline & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Wooton, Ian, 2020. "Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 891-912.
    13. Erman,Alvina Elisabeth & Solis Uehara,Carla Cristina & Beaudet,Chloé, 2021. "Leveling Up : Impacts of Performance-Based Grants on Municipal Revenue Collection in Mozambique," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9789, The World Bank.
    14. Meinhofer, Angélica & Witman, Allison E. & Hinde, Jesse M. & Simon, Kosali, 2021. "Marijuana liberalization policies and perinatal health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Baranov, Victoria & de Haas, Ralph & Grosjean, Pauline, 2018. "Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms," Other publications TiSEM 6fa57f55-71bb-42c4-8cc4-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Wang, Wenjie, 2021. "Wild Bootstrap for Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments and Few Clusters," MPRA Paper 106227, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. DeCicca, Philip & Krashinsky, Harry, 2020. "Does education reduce teen fertility? Evidence from compulsory schooling laws," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Rodriguez-Raga, Santiago & Martinez-Camelo, Natalia, 2022. "Game, guide or website for financial education improvement: Evidence from an experiment in Colombian schools," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    19. Saloni Khurana & Kanika Mahajan, 2022. "Public Safety for Women: Is Regulation of Social Drinking Spaces Effective?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 164-182, January.
    20. Guerra, Alice & Zhuravleva, Tatyana, 2021. "Do bystanders react to bribery?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 442-462.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • A21 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Pre-college
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:78:y:2020:i:c:s0272775718303054. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.