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The Impact of High School Financial Education on Financial Knowledge and Saving Choices: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Olympia Bover
  • Laura Hospido
  • Ernesto Villanueva

Abstract

We conducted a randomized controlled trial where 3,000 ninth-grade students in 77 high schools received a financial education course at different points of the year. Right after the treatment, treated students obtained 18 percent of one standard deviation higher scores in financial tests and showed more patience in hypothetical saving choices. In an incentivized saving task conducted three months after, treated students made more patient choices than a control group of tenth-graders. Within randomization strata, financial education shifted upward the distribution of low scores and patience in public schools, which overrepresent disadvantaged students, but not in nonpublic ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Olympia Bover & Laura Hospido & Ernesto Villanueva, 2026. "The Impact of High School Financial Education on Financial Knowledge and Saving Choices: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Spain," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 61(2), pages 335-366.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:61:y:2026:i:2:p:335-366
    Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0720-11049R2
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    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/61/2/335
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    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
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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