The impact of undergraduate personal finance education on individual financial literacy, attitudes and intentions

TLDR

Financial literacy education is a key policy option for improving personal financial decision‑making, yet university‑level offerings remain rare and largely untested. The study evaluates the impact of a semester personal‑finance unit on undergraduates’ financial literacy, attitudes, and behavioural intentions. The evaluation used a controlled design with undergraduates at an Australian university, measuring objective and subjective financial literacy, attitudes, and intentions before and after the unit. Results show significant gains in both objective and subjective financial literacy, a gender difference, and no evidence of increased overconfidence.

Abstract

Abstract Financial literacy education features prominently among the policy options available to improve personal financial decision‐making. Notwithstanding calls to expand delivery of financial literacy units at university level, such offerings are relatively rare with little evaluation. We provide an evaluation of the impact on financial literacy, financial attitudes and financial behaviour intentions of a semester unit in personal finance delivered to undergraduates at an Australian university, carefully controlling for confounding effects in the analysis. We report increases in objective and subjective financial literacy and an additional gender effect. Contrary to previous speculation, we do not find overconfidence as an associated outcome.