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  • January 2019
  • Article
  • Management Science

The ABCs of Financial Education: Experimental Evidence on Attitudes, Behavior, and Cognitive Biases

By: Fenella Carpena, Shawn A. Cole, Jeremy Shapiro and Bilal Zia
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Abstract

This paper uses a large-scale field experiment in India to study attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive constraints that can stymie the link between financial education and financial outcomes. The study complements financial education with (1) financial incentives on a financial literacy test to affect participant motivation, (2) financial goal setting to provide a psychological nudge, and (3) personalized financial counseling to enhance the intensity of treatment. The analysis finds no impact of financial incentives on learning but significant effects of both goal setting and counseling on real financial outcomes. These results identify important complements to financial education that can bridge the gap between financial knowledge and behavior change.

Keywords

Finance; Education; Attitudes; Behavior; Outcome or Result

Citation

Carpena, Fenella, Shawn A. Cole, Jeremy Shapiro, and Bilal Zia. "The ABCs of Financial Education: Experimental Evidence on Attitudes, Behavior, and Cognitive Biases." Management Science 65, no. 1 (January 2019): 346–369.
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About The Author

Shawn A. Cole

Finance
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  • What Do Impact Investors Do Differently? By: Shawn A. Cole, Leslie Jeng, Josh Lerner, Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth
  • Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence on Prize-Linked Savings Accounts By: Shawn A. Cole, Benjamin Iverson and Peter Tufano
  • Engine No. 1: An Impact Investing Firm Engages with ExxonMobil By: Mark Kramer, Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi and T. Robert Zochowski
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