Financial teaching and financial understanding amongst young people

• Gender Gap in Financial Understanding : • A significant gender gap in financial understanding exists among 11–18-year-olds in Scotland, favoring males by nearly 30 %. • This gap is observed despite females reporting slightly higher exposure to financial teaching than males. • Role of Financial Education : • Teaching of economics, finance, and business studies in schools has a substantial positive effect on financial understanding. • However, the effectiveness of financial teaching is greater for males compared to females. • Origins of Gender Gap : • The gender gap in financial understanding among adults likely begins during school years. • Addressing this gap at an early stage is crucial to mitigate its persistence into adulthood. • Research Findings : • A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis revealed that 80 % of the gender gap could be attributed to differences in the effectiveness of financial education, rather than demographic or socio-economic factors. • Need for Further Research : • The document underscores the importance of investigating causal mechanisms that generate gender bias in financial teaching effectiveness. This paper examines the gender gap in financial understanding amongst 11–18 year-olds in Scotland. A regression analysis is carried out based on individual-level data collected in the 2014 Young People in Scotland Survey (N = 2016) . This survey was supplemented with questions measuring financial understanding, along with questions relating to the teaching of economics, finance and business studies as school subjects. The analysis suggests that there is a large gender gap favouring males of nearly 30 %. In addition, the teaching of economics, finance and business studies has a large positive effect on financial understanding. This effect is about four times larger for males compared to females. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition suggests that most of the gender gap is explained by this difference. More generally, the analysis suggests that the beginnings of the adult gender gap in financial understanding is when individuals are in school.