The study is funded by Netspar through the International Theme Grant 2009. It engages an international group of researchers, who will provide a comparative study of financial literacy, with country-specific analyses based on a common framework.

Examining the results of these cross-country comparisons will allow us to identify similarities in financial knowledge across distinct economic environments; to identify which demographic groups are more likely to display low knowledge, which can inform the design of financial education programs that target particularly vulnerable segments of the population; and to assess whether there is a consistent link between financial literacy and financial behavior.

Findings from these research projects have implications for the effective design of financial education programs, meant to improve the effectiveness of financial education and saving programs.

The Scientific Coordinator of the research is Annamaria Lusardi, while CeRP is the coordinating institution. The following researchers are involved in the study:

Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College)

Olivia Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania)

Nick Maynard (Doorways 2 Dreams Fund)

David Feslier (Retirement Commission, New Zealand)

Tabea Bucher-Koenen (MEA, Mannheim)

Elsa Fornero (University of Turin and CeRP)

Leora Klapper (World Bank)

Peter Tufano (Harvard Business School)

Rob Alessie (University of Groningen)

Maarten van Rooij (DNB)

Chiara Monticone (CeRP)

Serena Trucchi (CeRP)

The team met for the first time in April 2010 in Ravello, where Elsa Fornero organized a session on financial literacy at the conference "Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Actuarial Sciences and Finance" (MAF 2010).

A second meeting has been held on December 20-21, 2010 at the CeRP workshop "Financial Literacy around the World".

Financial literacy has been one of the topics of the 2011 Netspar International Pension Workshop, coorganized by CeRP and hosted at the Collegio Carlo Alberto.

The Netspar team will meet in September 2012, on the occasion of the CeRP annual conference  "Financial Literacy, Saving and Retirement in an Ageing Society"

The Theme page on the Netspar website