Welcome to this month’s faiVLive webinar.
There’s no question that there are big gaps in financial literacy between the rich and poor, and between those included and excluded at every income level and in every country. As digital finance becomes more important, the gap grows and takes on added dimensions. No wonder that financial (and now digital) literacy programs attract attention and millions of dollars globally.
But the evidence we have suggests that most financial literacy interventions don’t change behavior, and ultimately may be worse than a waste of time and resources.
What can be done about literacy gaps? Are there alternatives to financial and digital literacy programs? Can consumer protection regulation make up for literacy gaps? Who needs to take action?
Join Tim Ogden, Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative, as we discuss the financial and digital literacy gaps and traps. Tim will be joined by:
Rafe Mazer, Director, Consumer Protection Initiative at Innovations for Poverty Action
Jayshree Venkatesan, Director, Responsible Finance and Consumer Protection at the Center for Financial Inclusion
Lauren Willis, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law at Loyola University
To watch the recording of this webinar on our YouTube Channel, click here.
10 Articles Related to Today’s faiVLive
Goodbye to Financial Literacy Month, by Tim Ogden and Julia Brand, FAI Blog, April 2021
More states are forcing students to study personal finance. It’s a waste of time, by Tim Ogden, Washington Post, April 2019
Financial Education Won’t Fix Poverty. We Need Structural Change, by Mae Watson Grote, Ms. Magazine, April 2021
Alternatives to Financial Education, published as chapter 18 in the Routledge Handbook of Financial Literacy, by Lauren Willis, 2022
The financial literacy industrial complex, by Felix Salmon, Axios, September 2021
Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors, by Tim Kaiser, Annamaria Lusardi, Lukas Menkhoff & Carly J. Urban, Journal of Financial Economics, 2021
Financial literacy and the need for financial education: evidence and implications, by Annemaria Lusardi, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, January 2019
On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms, by Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer Moore, American Economic Review, July 2021
Information Disclosure and Demand Elasticity of Financial Products: Evidence from a Multi-Country Study, by Xavier Gine, Cristina Martínez and Rafe Mazer, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 8210, April 2018
Financial Fraud is Flourishing on Zelle. The Banks Say it’s Not Their Problem, by Stacy Cowley and Lananh Nguyen, New York Times, March 6, 2022