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Five steps to planning success: experimental evidence from US households

Author

Listed:
  • Aileen Heinberg
  • Angela Hung
  • Arie Kapteyn
  • Annamaria Lusardi
  • Anya Savikhin Samek
  • Joanne Yoong

Abstract

While financial knowledge has been linked to improved financial behaviour, there is little consensus on the value of financial education, in part because rigorous evaluation of various programmes has yielded mixed results. However, given the heterogeneity of financial education programmes in the literature, focusing on ‘generic’ financial education can be inappropriate and even misleading. Lusardi (2009) and others argue that pedagogy and delivery matter significantly. In this paper, we design and field a low-cost, easily-replicable financial education programme called ‘Five Steps’, covering five basic financial planning concepts that relate to retirement. We conduct a field experiment to evaluate the overall impact of Five Steps on a probability sample of the American population. In different treatment arms, we quantify the relative impact of delivering the programme through video and narrative formats. Our results show that short videos and narratives (each takes about 3 minutes) have sizeable short-run effects on objective measures of respondent knowledge. Moreover, keeping informational content relatively constant, format has significant effects on other psychological levers of behavioural change: effects on self-efficacy are significantly higher when videos are used, which ultimately influences knowledge acquisition. Follow-up tests of respondents’ knowledge approximately 8 months after the interventions suggest that between one-quarter and one-third of the knowledge gain and about one-fifth of the self-efficacy gain persist. Thus, this simple programme has effects both in the short run and medium run.

Suggested Citation

  • Aileen Heinberg & Angela Hung & Arie Kapteyn & Annamaria Lusardi & Anya Savikhin Samek & Joanne Yoong, 2014. "Five steps to planning success: experimental evidence from US households," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 697-724.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:30:y:2014:i:4:p:697-724.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/gru036
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    Cited by:

    1. Lusardi, Annamaria & Samek, Anya & Kapteyn, Arie & Glinert, Lewis & Hung, Angela & Heinberg, Aileen, 2017. "Visual tools and narratives: new ways to improve financial literacy," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 297-323, July.
    2. Bruce I. Carlin & Li Jiang & Stephen A. Spiller, 2014. "Learning Millennial-Style," NBER Working Papers 20268, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2020. "Financial education in schools: A meta-analysis of experimental studies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Anya Samek & Arie Kapteyn & Andre Gray, 2018. "Using Consequence Messaging to Improve Understanding of Social Security," Working Papers wp383, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    6. Roberto Alvarez & Alvaro Miranda & Jaime Ruiz-Tagle, 2023. "Whisper Words of Wisdom: How Financial Counseling can Reduce Delinquency in Consumer Loans," Working Papers wp552, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    7. Popovich, Jacob J. & Loibl, Cäzilia & Zirkle, Christopher & Whittington, M. Susie, 2020. "Community college students’ response to a financial literacy intervention: An exploratory study," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    8. John A. List & Robert Metcalfe, 2014. "Field experiments in the developed world: an introduction," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 585-596.
    9. Edward Hubbard & Percival Matthews & Anya Samek, 2016. "Using online compound interest tools to improve financial literacy," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 106-120, April.
    10. Stefan Klößner & Gregor Pfeifer, 2019. "The Importance of Tax Adjustments When Evaluating Wage Expectations," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(2), pages 578-605, April.
    11. Kai Yuan Kuan & Mark R. Cullen & Sepideh Modrek, 2015. "Racial Disparities in Savings Behavior for a Continuously Employed Cohort," NBER Working Papers 20937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. 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.
    13. Clark, Robert L. & Lin, Chuanhao & Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Sticha, Andrea, 2025. "Evaluating the effects of a low-cost, online financial education program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    14. Annamaria Lusardi, 2015. "Risk Literacy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 1(1), pages 5-23, March.
    15. Christian Fieberg & Lars Hornuf & Maximilian Meiler & David J. Streich, 2025. "Using Large Language Models for Financial Advice," CESifo Working Paper Series 11666, CESifo.
    16. Casiana ILLE, 2021. "Trends And Perspectives On Entrepreneurial Education In Romania And The Eu," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 54-64, December.
    17. Annamaria Lusardi, 2019. "Financial literacy and the need for financial education: evidence and implications," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 155(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Niszczota, Paweł & Abbas, Sami, 2023. "GPT has become financially literate: Insights from financial literacy tests of GPT and a preliminary test of how people use it as a source of advice," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    19. Antoine Genest-Grégoire & Luc Godbout & Jean-Herman Guay, 2017. "The Knowledge Deficit about Taxes: Who It Affects and What to Do About It," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 484, July.
    20. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Annamaria Lusardi, 2022. "Evaluating Deliberative Competence: A Simple Method with an Application to Financial Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3584-3626, November.
    21. 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.
    22. Bruce I. Carlin & Li Jiang & Stephen A. Spiller, 2018. "Millennial-Style Learning: Search Intensity, Decision Making, and Information Sharing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3313-3330, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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