TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lusardi,Annamaria
AU  - Mitchell,Olivia S.
AU  - Curto,Vilsa
TI  - Financial Literacy among the Young: Evidence and Implications for Consumer Policy
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15352
PY  - 2009
Y2  - September 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15352
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15352.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Annamaria Lusardi
The George Washington University
School of Business
2201 G Street, NW
Duques Hall, Suite 450E
Washington, DC 20052
Tel: 202-994-8410
E-Mail: alusardi@gwu.edu

Olivia S. Mitchell
University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School
3620 Locust Walk, St 3000 SH-DH
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
Tel: 215-898-0424
Fax: 215/898-0310
E-Mail: mitchelo@wharton.upenn.edu

Vilsa Curto
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
E-Mail: vilsa.curto@post.harvard.edu
AB  - We examined financial literacy among the young using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We showed that financial literacy is low among the young; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. Financial literacy is strongly related to sociodemographic characteristics and family financial sophistication. Specifically, a college-educated male whose parents had stocks and retirement savings is about 50 percentage points more likely to know about risk diversification than a female with less than a high school education whose parents were not wealthy. These findings have implications for consumer policy.
ER  -