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The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education

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  • Joana Elisa Maldonado

    (Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven)

  • Kristof De Witte

    (Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven
    Maastricht University)

  • Koen Declercq

    (UCLouvain - Saint-Louis Bruxelles)

Abstract

This paper provides causal evidence on the effects of parental involvement on student outcomes in a financial education course based on two randomised controlled trials with a total of 2779 students from grade 8 and 9 in Flanders. Using an experimental design with three treatment groups, the impact of parental involvement in homework is distinguished from the standalone impact of the classroom intervention and homework itself. Intention-to-treat analysis reveals that access to the intervention effectively improves students’ financial literacy in the two dimensions of knowledge and behaviour. The classroom intervention combined with a homework assigned to be completed with the parents increases financial literacy by 0.38 standard deviations. On average, the added value of prompting parental involvement in homework is not statistically significant. Yet, stimulating parental involvement has significant positive effects on behaviour for disadvantaged students.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:62:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s00181-021-02058-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-021-02058-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial literacy; Parental involvement; Randomised controlled trial; Education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • A21 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Pre-college

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