This paper was generously supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Financial Education and Counseling—Still Holding Promise
Article first published online: 8 SEP 2010
Copyright 2010 by The American Council on Consumer Interests
Journal of Consumer Affairs
Volume 44, Issue 3, pages 483–498, Fall 2010
How to Cite
COLLINS, J. M. and O’ROURKE, C. M. (2010), Financial Education and Counseling—Still Holding Promise. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 44: 483–498. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6606.2010.01179.x
- Issue published online: 8 SEP 2010
- Article first published online: 8 SEP 2010
This article reviews the evaluation literature on financial education and counseling for adults in order to synthesize implications for research and practice. Most evaluations report positive impacts, but the findings are often small when compared with valid comparison groups. Many evaluations use self-reported measures, measure outcomes over short time periods and cannot rule out selection bias due to nonrandomized designs, all of which may bias results. Although future research and practice in this field hold promise, more attention to theory-based evaluations and further investment in randomized field experiments may be fruitful.