The Impact of School-Based Financial Education on High School Students and their Teachers: Experimental Evidence from Peru

Accesible PDF image
Peer Reviewed icon Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Mar 2018
Subject
Financial Education;
Saving Behavior;
Educational Institution;
High School;
Financial Inclusion;
Academic Performance;
Impact Evaluation;
Randomized Controlled Trial;
Curriculum
JEL code
D91 - Intertemporal Household Choice • Life Cycle Models and Saving;
J24 - Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity;
O16 - Financial Markets • Saving and Capital Investment • Corporate Finance and Governance
Country
Peru
Category
Working Papers
Using data from a randomized controlled trial in 300 public high schools in Peru, this paper studies the potential of school-based financial education programs for youth. The intervention improves students’ and teachers’ financial knowledge by 0.14 SD and 0.32 SD, respectively. The impact of the intervention also extends to socioemotional traits and behavior, as sizable positive impacts on self-control and consumption habits among students are identified. Teachers in the treatment group become more impulsive and risk averse, and they are more likely to save (9 percentage points) and to save formally (14 percentage points).
Generative AI enabled