Keeping It Simple: Financial Literacy and Rules of Thumb

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Drexler, Alejandro; Fischer, Greg; Schoar, Antoinette
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.6.2.1
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1-31
• 关键词: emerging markets; education; entrepreneurship; INFORMATION; incentives; complexity; decisions; IMPACT; kenya; INDIA

摘要

Micro-entrepreneurs often lack the financial literacy required to make important financial decisions. We conducted a randomized evaluation with a bank in the Dominican Republic to compare the impact of two distinct programs: standard accounting training versus a simplified, rule-of-thumb training that taught basic financial heuristics. The rule-of-thumb training significantly improved firms' financial practices, objective reporting quality, and revenues. For micro-entrepreneurs with lower skills or poor initial financial practices, the impact of the rule-of-thumb training was significantly larger than that of the standard accounting training, suggesting that simplifying training programs might improve their effectiveness for less sophisticated individuals.