Financial Literacy Around the World: An Overview of the Evidence with Practical Suggestions for the Way Forward

This is part of AgriFin’s collection of resources which include brief technical notes, lessons learned reports, and articles examining a broad range of topics related to sustainable agricultural finance.

Financial literacy programs have become an important component of financial policy reform worldwide. To find out whether these programs are effective in achieving their objectives, the authors reviewed a number of empirical studies on financial education programs and their associated outcomes.

The review shows that high income and low income countries approach financial education differently. For example, in high-income countries, financial education focuses on preparing individuals to navigate a wide range of financial products to make sound financial decisions.

In low-income countries, financial education focuses on increasing access to and take-up of financial services. In addition, enhancing business knowledge is an important focus of financial literacy programs in low income countries given that many individuals are entrepreneurs as opposed to wage-earners.