What evaluations tell us about the effectiveness of financial education

The Retirement Commission recently hosted Emeritus Professor Elaine Kempson who gave the following presentation in Wellington on Tuesday 11 August 2010.

Across the world, many millions of dollars have been spent on programmes delivering financial education in a wide range of ways to diverse audiences. Intuitively, we all believe that they play an important role in ensuring that our populations are financially literate. Evidence on their impact and effectiveness is, however, far less extensive than might be expected.

Professor Elaine Kempson is currently acting as a consultant to the World Bank and the OECD on financial capability. She is an internationally known and respected authority on consumer financial issues, with over 25 years’ experience of conducting research into various aspects of personal financial services, including banking, saving and investment, insurance, credit and mortgages and pensions.

Download Elaine Kempson's presentation  (PDF, 72.42Kb)