IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ecpoli/v31y2016i88p743-782..html

Adult financial literacy and households’ financial assets: the role of bank information policies

Author

Listed:
  • Margherita Fort
  • Francesco Manaresi
  • Serena Trucchi

Abstract

We investigate the role of bank information policies in fostering the accumulation of financial knowledge. Exploiting the exogenous variability induced by the presence of a consortium of banks in Italy (PattiChiari), we find that these policies are effective for a small subsample of the population (5–10%) and lead to an increase in financial literacy by about 10%, on average. Compliance is highest among low-educated respondents older than 60 years. We use these policies as an instrumental variable to estimate the effect of financial literacy on financial assets. We find that one standard deviation increase in financial literacy determines an increase in household financial assets by 35% of a standard deviation (8,000 euros). Effects are heterogeneous in the population and highest among elderly low-educated households.

Suggested Citation

  • Margherita Fort & Francesco Manaresi & Serena Trucchi, 2016. "Adult financial literacy and households’ financial assets: the role of bank information policies," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(88), pages 743-782.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ecpoli:v:31:y:2016:i:88:p:743-782.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/epolic/eiw012
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Marco Nieddu & Lorenzo Pandolfi, 2018. "Cutting Through the Fog: Financial Literacy and the Subjective Value of Financial Assets," CSEF Working Papers 497, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    2. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2022. "Active learning improves financial education: Experimental evidence from Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Filippini, Massimo & Leippold, Markus & Wekhof, Tobias, 2024. "Sustainable finance literacy and the determinants of sustainable investing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    4. Farías, Pablo, 2019. "Determinants of knowledge of personal loans' total costs: How price consciousness, financial literacy, purchase recency and frequency work together," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 212-219.
    5. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Active Learning Improves Financial Education:," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 131, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Andrej Cupak & Pirmin Fessler & Maria Antoinette Silgoner & Elisabeth Ulbrich, 2018. "Financial literacy in Austria: a survey of recent research results," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/18, pages 14-26.
    7. AHMAD Idris & ALNI Rahmawati & ARNI Surwanti & MAMDUH M. Hanafi, 2023. "Financial Literacy To Improve Sustainability: A Bibliometric Analysis," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 18(3), pages 24-43, December.
    8. Tran Huynh, 2023. "Financial Literacy and Mortgage Payment Delinquency?," Jena Economics Research Papers 2023-007, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    9. Davoli, Maddalena & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2020. "Culture and adult financial literacy: Evidence from the United States," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. David Aristei & Manuela Gallo, 2021. "Financial Knowledge, Confidence, and Sustainable Financial Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2017. "Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 611-630.
    12. Orazio Attanasio & Matthew Bird & Lina Cardona-Sosa & Pablo Lavado, 2019. "Freeing Financial Education via Tablets: Experimental Evidence from Colombia," NBER Working Papers 25929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Orset, Caroline, 2021. "Is information a good policy instrument to influence the energy behaviour of households?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Aristei, David & Gallo, Manuela & Vannoni, Valeria, 2024. "Preferences for ethical intermediaries and sustainable investment decisions in micro-firms: The role of financial literacy and digital financial capability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Alessio D'Ignazio & Daniela Marconi & Massimiliano Stacchini, 2024. "Micro-entrepreneurs and the twin green and digital transitions. Does financial literacy play a role?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 858, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Lusardi, Annamaria & Kaiser, Tim, 2024. "Financial literacy and financial education: An overview," CEPR Discussion Papers 19185, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Rosa M. Mayoral & Eleuterio Vallelado, 2017. "Beyond rational behaviour: the non-financial variables that condition shareholder action during a takeover," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 254-270, July.
    18. Angelo Baglioni & Luca Colombo & Giulio Piccirilli, 2018. "On the Anatomy of Financial Literacy in Italy," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 47(2-3), pages 245-304, July.
    19. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2018. "Active Learning Fosters Financial Behavior: Experimental Evidence," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1743, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    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:oup:ecpoli:v:31:y:2016:i:88:p:743-782.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cebruuk.html .

    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.