IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/opques/qef_855_24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tackling the gender gap in financial literacy. Evidence from a financial education program in the workplace

Author

Listed:
  • Alessio D'Ignazio

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Ludovica Galotto

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Cristiana Rampazzi

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of 'Women matter', a financial education program provided by the Bank of Italy to tackle the gender gap in financial literacy. We exploit data collected during the pilot edition of the initiative, undertaken from May 2022 to April 2024 and aimed at female employees. The sample consists of about 200 workers, including both program participants and non-participants, with the latter being similar to the former across a wide range of observable characteristics. We find that attending the program leads to a sizeable increase in the participants' financial competences, corresponding to about 30 per cent of the financial literacy score measured before the course. Moreover, the program is more effective for younger recipients and for those less familiar with financial instruments. Finally, we show that the teacher's level of financial literacy directly affects the success of the program.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessio D'Ignazio & Ludovica Galotto & Cristiana Rampazzi, 2024. "Tackling the gender gap in financial literacy. Evidence from a financial education program in the workplace," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 855, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_855_24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2024-0855/QEF_855_24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    2. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    3. Bruhn, Miriam & Lara Ibarra, Gabriel & McKenzie, David, 2014. "The minimal impact of a large-scale financial education program in Mexico City," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 184-189.
    4. Hospido, Laura & Iriberri, Nagore & Machelett, Margarita, 2023. "Gender Gaps in Financial Literacy: A Multi-Arm RCT to Break the Response Bias in Surveys," IZA Discussion Papers 16628, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Patrick J. Bayer & B. Douglas Bernheim & John Karl Scholz, 2009. "The Effects Of Financial Education In The Workplace: Evidence From A Survey Of Employers," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 605-624, October.
    6. Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Annamaria Lusardi & Rob Alessie & Maarten van Rooij, 2017. "How Financially Literate Are Women? An Overview and New Insights," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 255-283, July.
    7. Robert Clark & Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2017. "Employee Financial Literacy And Retirement Plan Behavior: A Case Study," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 248-259, January.
    8. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Garrett, Daniel M., 2003. "The effects of financial education in the workplace: evidence from a survey of households," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1487-1519, August.
    9. Leora Klapper & Annamaria Lusardi, 2020. "Financial literacy and financial resilience: Evidence from around the world," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 589-614, September.
    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. Lusardi, Annamaria & Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2020. "Assessing the impact of financial education programs: A quantitative model," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Tim Kaiser & Annamaria Lusardi, 2024. "Financial Literacy and Financial Education: An Overview," NBER Working Papers 32355, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Maya Haran Rosen & Orly Sade, 2017. "Does Financial Regulation Unintentionally Ignore Less Privileged Populations? The Investigation of a Regulatory Fintech Advancement, Objective and Subjective Financial Literacy," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2017.10, Bank of Israel.
    5. Azra Zaimovic & Anes Torlakovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo & Tarik Zaimovic & Lejla Dedovic & Minela Nuhic Meskovic, 2023. "Mapping Financial Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review of Determinants and Recent Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-30, June.
    6. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Annamaria Lusardi, 2022. "Evaluating Deliberative Competence: A Simple Method with an Application to Financial Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3584-3626, November.
    8. Panu Kalmi & Gianluca Trotta & Andrius Kažukauskas, 2021. "Energy‐related financial literacy and electricity consumption: Survey‐based evidence from Finland," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 1062-1089, September.
    9. Aileen Heinberg & Angela Hung & Arie Kapteyn & Annamaria Lusardi & Anya Savikhin Samek & Joanne Yoong, 2014. "Five steps to planning success: experimental evidence from US households," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 697-724.
    10. Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Rob Alessie & Annamaria Lusardi & Maarten van Rooij, 2021. "Fearless Woman. Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation," Working Papers 708, DNB.
    11. Remya Tressa Jacob & Rudra Sensarma, 2022. "Does knowledge empower? A story of debt literacy and credit usage in rural consumer finance," Working papers 529, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    12. Billari, Francesco C. & Favero, Carlo A. & Saita, Francesco, 2023. "Online financial and demographic education for workers: Experimental evidence from an Italian Pension Fund," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    13. Christian Königsheim & Moritz Lukas & Markus Nöth, 2017. "Financial Knowledge, Risk Preferences, and the Demand for Digital Financial Services," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(4), pages 343-375, October.
    14. Francesco C. Billari & Carlo A. Favero & Francesco Saita, 2017. "Nudging financial and demographic literacy: experimental evidence from an Italian Trade Union Pension Fund," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1767, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    15. Bingzheng Chen & Peiyun Deng & Xiaodong Fan, 2022. "Effect of compulsory education on retirement financial outcomes: evidence from China," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 958-989, October.
    16. Avner Ben-Ner & John List & Louis Putterman & Anya Samek, 2015. "Learned Generosity? A Field Experiment with Parents and Their Children," Artefactual Field Experiments 00434, The Field Experiments Website.
    17. Robert Clark & Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2017. "Employee Financial Literacy And Retirement Plan Behavior: A Case Study," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 248-259, January.
    18. Angelici, Marta & Del Boca, Daniela & Oggero, Noemi & Profeta, Paola & Rossi, Maria Cristina & Villosio, Claudia, 2022. "Pension information and women’s awareness," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    19. Asmare, Fissha & Giedraitis, Vincentas & Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kažukauskas, Andrius, 2023. "Energy-related financial literacy and retrofits of Soviet-era apartment buildings: The case of Lithuania," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Kadoya, Yoshihiko & Khan, Mostafa Saidur Rahim, 2020. "What determines financial literacy in Japan?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 353-371, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial literacy; financial education for adults; gender gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • G5 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance

    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:bdi:opques:qef_855_24. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.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.