IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nfi/nfipbs/2006-pb-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial Literacy Strategies: Where Do We Go From Here?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert I. Lerman
  • Elizabeth Bell

Abstract

The evolution of market economies has dramatically broadened the opportunities of consumers, workers, investors, and firms. Financial services have become especially free and accessible, but also increasingly complex. For the new financial freedom to help most people, they must understand their choices and the likely implications of alternative decisions. Unfortunately, many Americans have a weak grasp of basic personal finance principles. This paper emphasizes the importance of financial literacy in an increasingly complex market economy and examines the current state of financial education in the U.S. and abroad. We explore two methods of delivering financial knowledge—through broad financial curriculums and through more focused 'teachable moments.' After examining the pros and cons of each, along with the evidence about their effectiveness, we suggest that a combination of the two perspectives, with the specific topics and behavioral strategies varying by target audience. We conclude by calling for a more rigorous evaluation of the effects of existing programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert I. Lerman & Elizabeth Bell, 2006. "Financial Literacy Strategies: Where Do We Go From Here?," NFI Policy Briefs 2006-PB-10, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:nfi:nfipbs:2006-pb-10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.indstate.edu/business/sites/business.indstate.edu/files/Docs/2006-PB-10_Lerman-Bell.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, 2004. "Save More Tomorrow (TM): Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 164-187, February.
    2. Oecd, 2006. "Improving Financial Literacy: Analysis of Issues and Policies," Financial Market Trends, OECD Publishing, vol. 2005(2), pages 111-123.
    3. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Garrett, Daniel M. & Maki, Dean M., 2001. "Education and saving:: The long-term effects of high school financial curriculum mandates," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 435-465, June.
    4. 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.
    5. Mitchell, Olivia S. & Utkus, Stephen P. (ed.), 2004. "Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199273393.
    6. Gregory E. Elliehausen & E. Christopher Lundquist & Michael E. Staten, 2003. "The impact of credit counseling on subsequent borrower credit usage and payment behavior," Proceedings 881, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tatom, John, 2010. "Financial wellbeing and some problems in assessing its link to financial education," MPRA Paper 26411, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Eurico J. Ferreira & Concetta A. DePaolo & Harry Edward Gallatin, 2011. "Assessing Finance Literacy Teaching at Indiana State University," NFI Working Papers 2011-WP-24, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.

    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. Maarten C.J. van Rooij & Annamaria Lusardi & Rob J.M. Alessie, 2012. "Financial Literacy, Retirement Planning and Household Wealth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(560), pages 449-478, May.
    2. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2007. "Financial literacy and retirement planning: New evidence from the Rand American Life Panel," CFS Working Paper Series 2007/33, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    3. Gary V. Engelhardt & Anil Kumar, 2007. "Employer Matching and 401(k) Saving: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," NBER Chapters, in: Public Policy and Retirement, Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES), pages 1920-1943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mustabsar Awais & M. Fahad Laber & Nilofer Rasheed & Aisha Khursheed, 2016. "Impact of Financial Literacy and Investment Experience on Risk Tolerance and Investment Decisions: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(1), pages 73-79.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Lusardi, Annamaria, 2007. "Household saving behavior: The role of literacy, information and financial education programs," CFS Working Paper Series 2007/28, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Catherine Bell & Daniel Gorin & Jeanne M. Hogarth, 2009. "Does Financial Education Affect Soldiers’ Financial Behavior?," NFI Working Papers 2009-WP-08, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.
    10. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia Mitchell, 2006. "Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education Programs," Working Papers wp144, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    11. Elsa Fornero & Annamaria Lusardi & Chiara Monticone, 2009. "Adequacy of Saving for Old Age in Europe," CeRP Working Papers 87, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    12. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2017. "How Ordinary Consumers Make Complex Economic Decisions: Financial Literacy and Retirement Readiness," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(03), pages 1-31, September.
    13. Annamaria Lusardi & Pierre-Carl Michaud & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2015. "Using a Life Cycle Model to Evaluate Financial Literacy Program Effectiveness," CIRANO Working Papers 2015s-14, CIRANO.
    14. van Dalen, H.P. & Henkens, K. & Hershey, D.A., 2008. "Are Pension Savings sufficient? Perceptions and Expectations of American and Dutch Workers," Other publications TiSEM 74def716-37e6-487f-b18d-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. James Alm & Carolyn J. Bourdeaux, 2013. "Applying Behavioral Economics to the Public Sector," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 206(3), pages 91-134, September.
    16. 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.
    17. Kelly D. Edmiston & Mary Gillett Fisher, 2006. "Financial education at the workplace: evidence from a survey of Federal Reserve Bank employees," Community Affairs Research Working Paper 2006-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    18. 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.
    19. Angela A. Hung & Andrew M. Parker & Joanne K. Yoong, 2009. "Defining and Measuring Financial Literacy," Working Papers WR-708, RAND Corporation.
    20. Andreas Oehler & Christina Werner, 2008. "Saving for Retirement—A Case for Financial Education in Germany and UK? An Economic Perspective," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 253-283, September.

    More about this item

    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:nfi:nfipbs:2006-pb-10. 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: Ray Thomas (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nfinsus.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.