IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/yaleeg/201692.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of Financial Education for Youth in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Karlan, Dean S.
  • Berry, James
  • Pradhan, Menno

Abstract

We evaluate, using a randomized trial, two school-based financial literacy education programs in government-run primary and junior high schools in Ghana. One program integrated financial and social education, whereas the second program only offered financial education. Both programs included a voluntary after-school savings club that provided students with a locked money box. After nine months, both programs had significant impacts on savings behavior relative to the control group, mostly because children moved savings from home to school. We observed few other impacts. We do find that financial education, when not accompanied by social education, led children to work more compared to the control group, whereas no such effect is found for the integrated curriculum; however, the difference between the two treatment effects on child labor is not statistically significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Karlan, Dean S. & Berry, James & Pradhan, Menno, 2015. "The Impact of Financial Education for Youth in Ghana," Center Discussion Papers 201692, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:201692
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.201692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/201692/files/cdp1048.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.201692?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melanie Lührmann & Marta Serra-Garcia & Joachim Winter, 2018. "The Impact of Financial Education on Adolescents' Intertemporal Choices," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 309-332, August.
    2. Bucciol, Alessandro & Veronesi, Marcella, 2014. "Teaching children to save: What is the best strategy for lifetime savings?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Bruhn, Miriam & de Souza Leao, Luciana & Legovini, Arianna & Marchetti, Rogelio & Zia, Bilal, 2013. "The impact of high school financial education : experimental evidence from Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6723, The World Bank.
    4. Daniel Fernandes & John G. Lynch & Richard G. Netemeyer, 2014. "Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Downstream Financial Behaviors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1861-1883, August.
    5. Webley, Paul & Nyhus, Ellen K., 2013. "Economic socialization, saving and assets in European young adults," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 19-30.
    6. Grohmann, Antonia & Kouwenberg, Roy & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2015. "Childhood roots of financial literacy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 114-133.
    7. Bruce Ian Carlin & David T. Robinson, 2012. "What Does Financial Literacy Training Teach Us?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 235-247, July.
    8. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    9. Dupas, Pascaline & Robinson, Jonathan, 2008. "Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt01x12117, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    10. Arnoud W. A. Boot & Lev Ratnovski, 2016. "Banking and Trading," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(6), pages 2219-2246.
    11. Leonardo Becchetti & Stefano Caiazza & Decio Coviello, 2013. "Financial education and investment attitudes in high schools: evidence from a randomized experiment," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 817-836, May.
    12. Leonardo Becchetti & Fabio Pisani, 2011. "Financial education on secondary school students: the randomized experiment revisited," Econometica Working Papers wp34, Econometica.
    13. Xu, Lisa & Zia, Bilal, 2012. "Financial literacy around the world : an overview of the evidence with practical suggestions for the way forward," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6107, The World Bank.
    14. Prina, Silvia, 2015. "Banking the poor via savings accounts: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 16-31.
    15. Pascaline Dupas & Jonathan Robinson, 2013. "Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 163-192, January.
    16. Goodhart, Charles A. E., 2016. "Whither central banking?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69297, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    18. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    19. Margaret Sherraden & Lissa Johnson & Baorong Guo & William Elliott, 2011. "Financial Capability in Children: Effects of Participation in a School-Based Financial Education and Savings Program," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 385-399, September.
    20. Goddard, John & Wilson, John O. S., 2016. "Banking: A Very Short Introduction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199688920.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    2. Girum Abebe & Biruk Tekle & Yukichi Mano, 2018. "Changing Saving and Investment Behaviour: The Impact of Financial Literacy Training and Reminders on Micro-businesses," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(5), pages 587-611.
    3. Prina, Silvia, 2015. "Banking the poor via savings accounts: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 16-31.
    4. Di Giannatale, Sonia & Roa, María José, 2016. "Formal Saving in Developing Economies: Barriers, Interventions, and Effects," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8107, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 84-96.
    6. Carvalho, Leandro S. & Prina, Silvia & Sydnor, Justin, 2016. "The effect of saving on risk attitudes and intertemporal choices," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 41-52.
    7. Simone Schaner, 2018. "The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 67-100, July.
    8. Macchiavello, Rocco & Casaburi, Lorenzo, 2015. "Firm and Market Response to Saving Constraints: Evidence from the Kenyan Dairy Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 10952, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Flory, Jeffrey A., 2018. "Formal finance and informal safety nets of the poor: Evidence from a savings field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 517-533.
    10. Granda, Catalina & Hamann, Franz & Tamayo, Cesar E., 2019. "Credit and saving constraints in general equilibrium: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 302-319.
    11. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2017. "Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 611-630.
    12. Oscar A. Stolper & Andreas Walter, 2017. "Financial literacy, financial advice, and financial behavior," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 581-643, July.
    13. Spantig, Lisa, 2021. "Cash in hand and savings decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1206-1220.
    14. Callen, Michael & Blumenstock, Joshua & Ghani, Tarek, 2016. "Mobile-izing Savings with Automatic Contributions: Experimental Evidence on Present Bias and Default Effects in Afghanistan," CEPR Discussion Papers 11400, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Karlan, Dean & Zinman, Jonathan, 2018. "Price and control elasticities of demand for savings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 145-159.
    16. Helke Seitz, 2020. "Subgroup Analysis of Investment Constraints: Evidence from Ugandan Microenterprises," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1920, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Elinor Benami & Michael R. Carter, 2021. "Can digital technologies reshape rural microfinance? Implications for savings, credit, & insurance," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1196-1220, December.
    18. Somville, Vincent & Vandewalle, Lore, 2023. "Access to banking, savings and consumption smoothing in rural India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    19. Freddy CASTRO & Daniela LONDOÑO & Álvaro José PARGA CRUZ & Camilo PEÑA GÓMEZ, 2021. "Factores que inciden en la decisión de ahorro de los microempresarios," Archivos de Economía 19338, Departamento Nacional de Planeación.
    20. Pierre Bachas & Paul Gertler & Sean Higgins & Enrique Seira, 2021. "How Debit Cards Enable the Poor to Save More," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1913-1957, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; International Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:201692. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.