In 2022, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) collaborated to develop the research brief “Financial Education Matters: Testing the Effectiveness of Financial Education Across 76 Randomized Experiments”. This brief, featured on both the FINRA Foundation and NEFE websites, summarizes the findings of a meta-analysis on the impact of financial education conducted by Tim Kaiser, Ph.D., Annamaria Lusardi, Ph.D., Lukas Menkhoff, Ph.D., and Carly Urban, Ph.D.
The research clearly shows that financial education is a cost-effective way to increase financial knowledge and improve a host of behaviors related to budgeting, saving, credit, insurance and more.
The impact of financial education programs is comparable to that of core school curricula and public campaigns, such as smoking cessation efforts, that help individuals manage personal issues.
To further amplify this landmark study, NEFE has created three infographics detailing the findings for advocacy purposes. We created these infographics for three audiences: policymakers, higher education advocates and K-12 advocates. They highlight the main findings and key issues of the meta-analysis in an easy-to-understand format. We hope these resources can be used in making the case for financial education at various levels—from the university campus to state legislation.
The infographics are available for download here.