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on Financial Literacy and Education |
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Issue of 2025–05–19
five papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Mbate, Michael; Fall, El Hadji |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between financial inclusion and energy access, leveraging micro-level survey data from Kenya (2016–2018) and employing propensity score matching to establish causal linkages. The analysis reveals that financial inclusion significantly enhances energy access, with distinct variations across financial institutions and energy types. Financial inclusion operates through three critical mechanisms: increasing households’ willingness to pay for energy, alleviating upfront connection costs via flexible payment schemes, and enabling seamless energy-related transactions through digital platforms. These findings underscore the importance of inclusive financial policies and the role of formal and informal financial institutions as intermediaries in addressing energy poverty. |
| Keywords: | digital platforms; energy access; energy costs; financial inclusion; propensity score matching; willingness to pay |
| JEL: | Q40 O13 G21 N27 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127538 |
| By: | Laura Brunner; Maddalena Davoli; Uschi Backes-Gellner |
| Abstract: | Financial literacy has become increasingly important. While previous literature shows that formal schooling enhances financial literacy-likely through analytical learning-little is known about whether and how vocational education, with its focus on practical applications of financial and economic tasks, also contributes to it. We examine whether financial literacy differs across clusters of vocational occupations and what factors might explain such differences. Our results show multiple pathways to acquiring financial literacy: through analytical learning, as in schooling contexts, and through repeated practical applications of financial and economic concepts in everyday occupational tasks, emphasizing the role of vocational education in fostering financial literacy. |
| Keywords: | Financial Literacy, Vocational Education and Training, Human Capital Formation, Skill Acquisition, Occupational Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | J24 I21 D91 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0240 |
| By: | Dominic Russel; Claire Shi; Rowan Clarke |
| Abstract: | We use transaction-level data from a major payment processor in South Africa to study revenue-based financing for small businesses provided by financial technology (fintech) companies. After eight months, payments through the selected processor are 16% lower for businesses that take financing offers than for observably similar non-takers, due to businesses hiding revenue to avoid repayments (moral hazard) and the tendency for riskier businesses to seek financing more frequently (adverse selection). Two natural experiments suggest that fintech platforms non-lending interactions with small businesses for example, payment processing and inventory management can limit both hiding and selection. By tying repayment to the continued use of non-lending products, fintechs can reduce enforcement and monitoring frictions. Our results help explain the rise of fintech-provided revenue-based financing and provide evidence for policymakers looking to increase financial inclusion and boost the growth of firms, particularly in developing economies. |
| Date: | 2025–05–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbz:wpaper:11078 |
| By: | Goda, Gopi Shah; Levy, Matthew R.; Flaherty Manchester, Colleen; Sojourner, Aaron; Tasoff, Joshua; Xiao, Jiusi |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomized controlled trial to understand how a web-based retirement saving calculator affects workers' retirement-savings decisions. In both the treatment and active control conditions, the calculator projects workers' retirement income goal. In the treatment condition only, it also projects retirement income based on defined-contribution savings, prominently displays the gap between projected goal and actual retirement income, and allows users to interactively explore how alternative, future contribution choices would affect the gap. The treatment increased average annual retirement contributions by $174 (2.3 percent). However, effects were larger for those with higher measures of financial knowledge, suggesting this type of tool complements, rather than substitutes for, underlying financial capability. |
| Keywords: | exponential-growth bias; financial capability; financial literacy; present bias; retirement planning; retirement saving |
| JEL: | D14 G23 |
| Date: | 2023–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120272 |
| By: | Bernd Hayo; Matthias Neuenkirch; Manuel Walz |
| Abstract: | This documentation paper provides background information and basic descriptive statistics for a representative survey of the French, German, and Italian populations, focusing on attitudes towards and the demand for a digital euro conducted on our behalf by Dynata in November and December 2023. The survey is quota-based by gender, age, income, and region. To measure views on a digital euro, the survey controls for various characteristics, including the digitalisation of daily life, financial literacy, payment behaviour, attitudes towards European integration, and several socio-demographic characteristics. Additionally, three treatments are implemented. Treatment 1 highlights the differences between private and public money, Treatment 2 presents various hypothetical designs for a digital euro, and Treatment 3 introduces a digital euro holding limit. |
| Keywords: | Digital Euro, ECB, Monetary Policy, Money Demand, Payment Systems |
| JEL: | E41 E42 E51 E58 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:202504 |