We conduct a randomized encouragement experiment with a representative sample of over 3800 individuals in Italy offering monetary incentives to follow elements of a national campaign designed to foster financial literacy. We randomly allocate the individuals to one of four experimental conditions: (a) C: pure control (i.e., no encouragement), (b) T1: monetary encouragement to follow a popular soap-opera with financial messaging embedded into the story line (i.e., the role-modelling channel), T2: monetary incentive to follow a popular quiz show with questions related to financial decision-making posed within the show (i.e., the information provision channel), and (c) T3: a monetary incentive to follow a low-intensity social and traditional media campaign relying on a female fictional character communicating simple but salient and intiuitive messages about financial decision making (i.e., the salience and basic awareness channel). In addition to studying the relative effectiveness of these campaign elements, we are interested in heterogenous treatment effects by gender, baseline financial knowledge / education, and socio-economic background. Additionally, we are interested in the potential role of cognitive vs. non-cognitive process outcomes in mediating the observed treatment effects.

Responsabile: Tim Kaiser

Componenti: Annamaria Lusardi, Alessia Sconti, Bilal Zia

Durata del progetto: 2021-2025

Parole chiave: behavior, education, finance & microfinance

Link: pagina AEA RCT Registry