Ricerc@Sapienza

The literature points to financial literacy as an essential driver of financial inclusion, decision-making, and well-being. To support this view, many public and private parties set up in-person financial education programs, find linkage with economic behavior and the best way to promote sound financial habits. The COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing forced the rise of new methods which can have both positive and/or negative multiplier effects on learning and behavior never studied before and that we aim to address.

This project aims to identify the most effective delivery method of financial education programs comparing in-person vs. online teaching methods. Through this comparison, we can investigate whether (and possibly, how much) learning and behavior are affected by the way the same course is delivered.

Mainstream literature stresses the positive linkage between higher financial literacy and sound financial behavior. The research also aims to measure the impact of financial education programs (however delivered) on intertemporal choices and individual beliefs about debt sustainability and public finance concepts.

Finally, to further investigate the effect of financial literacy on Generation Z's behavior, we aim to exploit the critical role of peer effects in a controlled environment as the lab. Through an incentivized RCT lab experiment, we will disentangle the effects of learning and peer effect's on behavioral changes looking at students' intertemporal choices' preferences.