Financial Education and Spillover Effects

Abstract

Using a newly-introduced, semester-long, university course on financial education in a country of low financial literacy, we find evidence of financial knowledge spillovers from students to their parents. We measure the financial knowledge score of students and parents, before and after the introduction of the course, using both a treatment and a control sample. The spillover effect is economically significant and it is driven from the subsample of students who have frequent, face-to-face interaction with their parents.

Keywords: Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Spillover, University course

JEL Classification: G53