Digital vs. in-person financial education: What works best for Generation Z?

Nowadays, financial literacy is one of the most important skills that can be acquired by a tech-savvy Generation Z student. In order to understand what format of financial education works best for Generation Z, we set up an experiment that involved implementing a financial education program called “Futuro Sicuro” with a sample of 650 High School students in Italy. The program allowed us to gather data from two treatments at the class level, namely 1) a traditional financial education simplified program with the presence of a financial advisor, and 2) a digital financial education program using web-based applications based on learning-by-playing concepts. The two treatments were associated with different costs but showed similar effects: three weeks after their conclusion, we find that both courses did increase actual financial knowledge and the results also aligned with participants’ realistic assessments of their own financial skills. A follow-up study also reveals the persistence of these effects three months later for the traditional course.