The study evaluates the effectiveness of the Bank of Italy's 'Financial Education in Schools' program, using two randomized experiments involving more than 600 primary school students and almost 900 lower secondary school students (selected from 17 and 19 schools, respectively). For each level of education, students were randomly assigned to three different activities (classroom training on basic economic and financial topics, self-study of educational materials, or no activity). Differences in learning were then analysed.
The results show that the program produces a statistically significant increase in financial literacy in both types of school. Self-study, however, is only effective for students from families with a socio-economic and cultural status above the median level.
