Does Financial Education Enhance Financial Preparedness? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Singapore

We evaluate how financial education provided to college students influenced their financial knowledge and planning in an experimental setting where we control for student motivation to enroll in the course. Using a differences-in-differences strategy, we confirm that financial education led to an increase in financial knowledge and planning. Specifically, we find that financial education improved students’ financial knowledge score by 11%, and financial planning score by 16%. No statistically significant effects are detected for students’ levels of financial prudence or discipline.