Nudging Financial and Demographic Literacy: Experimental Evidence from an Italian Trade Union Pension Fund
By Francesco C. Billari (Bocconi University – Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management), Carlo A. Favero (Bocconi University – Department of Finance; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)) & Francesco Saita (Bocconi University – Department of Finance)
In this article, we present and test experimentally a low-cost, Internet-based, financial literacy program that we designed for implementation with the largest industrial pension fund in Italy. The program, Finlife (Financial Education and Planning for a Long Life) included 1) an instructional video and materials on financial, and demographic, literacy, provided online; 2) an experimental design that explicitly allows to evaluate the impact of the online content on financial and demographic literacy, as well as on short-term behavioral changes; 3) a follow-up that allows to assess the stability of some of the experimental outcomes. Finlife was designed to be a low-cost and scalable approach to increase financial and demographic literacy, consistently with a ‘nudge’ philosophy. Our findings show that Finlife delivered a substantially and statistically significant increase in financial and demographic literacy, as well as a push towards seeking more information on financial markets and choices related to financial planning.
Source: SSRN
