On the Complementarity of K-12 Personal Finance and Economic Education: Evidence from Online Modules

We compile data from 2.4 million economics and personal finance module assignments completed by 513,000 K-12 students on an educational online platform. We exploit variation in the order in which these students complete the modules–economics or personal finance first– to estimate directional spillovers. The spillover runs one way. Controlling for school demographics, students who take economics first score 3.42 points higher on personal finance post-tests; taking personal finance first raises economics post-tests by 0.15 points on the same specification. A placebo using exposure that occurs after the outcome puts the return at 0.8 to 1.4 points per pre-treatment module. The advantage does not shrink as the gap between subjects grows, and it is largest in raw points for lower-performing students, 5.1 compared with 1.6, though mostly because higher-performing students sit at the test ceiling. Economics appears to supply foundational concepts that personal finance does not. When both subjects are taught, the order matters: economics first is the better order, and one or two economics modules capture most of the available gain.