Non è mai troppo tardi: l'imperativo ergonomico nella financial education

The recent global financial crisis has drawn the attention of both scholars and supervisory authorities to the issue of financial education in the hope that it might contribute to the development of more efficient markets. By the most basic definition, financial education is the series of measures designed to improve financial literacy. The latter relates to a person’s competence for managing money and addresses the area of individual knowledge, capability and motivation (Noctor et al., 1992). Financial literacy requires confidence in more than just one topic of personal finance such as credit, budgeting, investment processes, and planning (Remund, 2010). A few countries, firstly among them the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, have already implemented a number of financial education initiatives starting from the early 2000. The addressees are usually high school or university students. At the same time, those countries have conducted surveys with a view to evaluating the effectiveness of the programs that had been carried out. Despite the considerable efforts and the number of analyses, their outcome is still uncertain: the widespread lack of financial literacy casts serious doubts on the ability of individuals to make responsible decisions (Lusardi, 2008), whilst there is no strong evidence that substantiates a contribution of school and university education to personal financial growth (Martin, 2007). In spite of the poor findings, the financial education initiatives arouse considerable enthusiasm and entail the allocation of massive investments, not infrequently taken away from the development of alternative consumer protection tools. This work reviews the determinants of responsible behaviors in order to offer policymakers guidance in the adoption of effective educational programs. In the last section of the essay, a self credit assessment tool is presented as application of the principles identified.