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Online financial and demographic education for workers: experimental evidence from an Italian Pension Fund

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  • Favero, Carlo A.
  • Billari, Francesco
  • Saita, Francesco

Abstract

We present and test experimentally a low-cost, Internet-based, literacy intervention program that we designed for implementation with the largest employer-based pension fund in Italy. The Finlife (Financial Education and Planning for a Long Life) program, included: 1) an online instructional video on financial, and demographic, literacy; 2) an experimental design that explicitly allowed evaluating the impact of the online content on financial and demographic literacy, as well as on short-term behavioral changes; 3) a follow-up that allowed assessing the subsequent choice of investment lines within the pension fund. Finlife was designed to be low-cost and scalable approach to increase financial and demographic literacy, consistently with a ‘nudge’ philosophy. We show that Finlife delivered a substantially and statistically significant increase in financial and demographic literacy, as well as a push towards seeking more information on financial markets and choices related to financial planning, and becoming more active in financial decisions.

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  • Favero, Carlo A. & Billari, Francesco & Saita, Francesco, 2022. "Online financial and demographic education for workers: experimental evidence from an Italian Pension Fund," CEPR Discussion Papers 17609, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17609
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    Cited by:

    1. Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Politicians, Trust and Financial Literacy: When Do Politicians Care?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23206, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    2. Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Politicians, Trust, Financial Literacy and Financial Education: When Do Politicians Care?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23208, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    3. Carolina Guerini & Donato Masciandaro, 2023. "Financial Education between Market and State: Private Commitment, Conflicts of Interest and Public Certification," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23213, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    4. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim, 2024. "Digital Interventions to Increase Financial Knowledge: Evidence from a Pilot RCT," IZA Discussion Papers 16811, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pensions; Financial literacy; Demographic literacy; Field experiment; Finlife; Online financial education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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