OeNB Financial Literacy Evaluation Series

The collected volume of the OeNB Financial Literacy Evaluation Series brings together the 11 articles that have been published up to May 2025. The series was developed by the OeNB (Katharina Felbermayr, Éva Kaczkó, Theresa Lorenz, Sandra Mauser, Valentin Voith and Maximilian Zieser) in collaboration with the Bank of Greece (Sofia Anyfantaki) as part of the ESCB System-wide Virtual Teams Programme. The individual articles, as well as future ones in the series, will be published online here.

The collected volume is available here in PDF format.

Background

Financial literacy provides long-term support to individuals in their personal financial lives. Due to different target groups (e.g. students, parents, working adults and elderly people), the diversity of topics and the varying relevance of these topics depending on life situations, a wide range of financial education programs is required to address specific needs. Currently, there is limited solid knowledge about which financial education programs are effective. Whether these programs achieve their intended impact can be determined through evaluation studies. Depending on the program and context, different evaluation methods should be preferred. Choosing an appropriate method, planning and conducting an evaluation, and interpreting the obtained results each pose various challenges. There  already exist several conceptual handbooks and toolkits serving as guides for evaluation studies. Examples include the World Bank's Evaluation Toolkit¹  and OECD's² work on evaluating national financial literacy strategies. However, aspects of evaluation research, especially regarding rigorous evaluation methods, are not yet sufficiently covered in existing handbooks. The concept of "financial literacy" provides the basis for measuring financial knowledge and skills. Research in this area is still young and rapidly evolving, leading to a variety of approaches, definitions and measurements , which further complicate comparisons between evaluation results.

The OeNB Financial Literacy Evaluation Series of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank is a comprehensive guide that aims to inform researchers, policymakers and educators about the current state of research on financial literacy and education. It provides an overview on the concept of financial literacy, reviews literature addressing the effectiveness of financial education programs and gives guidelines for designing and implementing comprehensive evaluation studies. It includes, among others, guides on quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method evaluation studies.

 

_{¹ Yoong, Joanne, Kata Mihaly, Sebastian Bauhoff, Lila Rabinovich, and Angela Hung. 2013. Toolkit for the Evaluation of Financial Capability Programs in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Washington DC: World Bank. Copy at https://tinyurl.com/yd58758o}

_{² OECD (2022), OECD/INFE Toolkit for Measuring Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion 2022, www.oecd.org/financial/education/2022-INFE-Toolkit-Measuring-Finlit-Financial-Inclusion.pdf}