Financial Education for Future Teachers: Experimental Evidence from Italy

Last registered on March 31, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Financial Education for Future Teachers: Experimental Evidence from Italy
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018166
Initial registration date
March 24, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 31, 2026, 9:49 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
claudia maurini
Affiliation
Banca d'Italia
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Alessio D'Ignazio
PI Affiliation
Bank of Italy
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PI Name
Christian Tarchi
PI Affiliation
University of Florence
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PI Name
Annalisa Valle
PI Affiliation
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2026-02-20
End date
2026-04-20
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project proposes a rigorous experimental evaluation of the financial education program developed by the Bank of Italy for students enrolled in Primary Teacher Education. The initiative, implemented since 2021 and now adopted by more than twenty universities, aims to strengthen future teachers’ foundational economic and financial knowledge and support the integration of these concepts into primary school teaching. The study will assess the program’s effectiveness in improving financial knowledge, reducing cultural and cognitive barriers toward financial topics, and enhancing participants’ perceived self efficacy and willingness to teach these themes in their future classrooms, an especially relevant goal given the predominantly female, humanities oriented composition of the target population.

The evaluation will rely on a randomized experimental design. Fourth year students will form the treatment group and attend the Bank of Italy’s training program, while fifth year students will serve as the control group. All participants will complete three surveys (pre intervention, few days after the program, and two months later) to measure short term and persistent effects.The study will also examine heterogeneous treatment effects by student characteristics, namely: financial knowledge; familiarity with finance, conceptualized as a construct capturing attitudinal and affective components; familiarity with the topics addressed in the study; type of secondary school degree; gender; and age. Overall, the project will provide novel evidence on the role of teacher training programs in fostering financial literacy among future educators and, through them, in shaping financial education in schools.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
D'Ignazio, Alessio et al. 2026. "Financial Education for Future Teachers: Experimental Evidence from Italy." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18166-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Since 2021, the Bank of Italy has offered a training program for students enrolled in the Bachelor’s degree in Primary Teacher Education, which qualifies graduates to teach in pre-primary and primary schools. The initiative aims to enrich the preparation of future teachers with basic economic and financial concepts, facilitating their integration into didactic activities for children aged 6 to 10.

The program addresses five macro‑topics: Income and Planning; Money and Prices; Payments and Purchasing; Saving and Investment; Credit. The seminars, generally included within the second‑year indirect training internships, consist of approximately one-hour lectures for each topic, delivered by specialists from the Institution. These lectures are complemented by didactic workshops led by university tutors, during which students design strategies, methods, and teaching materials to introduce financial education in primary schools.
Intervention Start Date
2026-02-20
Intervention End Date
2026-04-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
cultural, experiential, and cognitive barriers to teaching finance in the classroom; participants’ perceived self efficacy; willingness to incorporate financial concepts into their future teaching
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
financial knowledge
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The empirical strategy is based on a randomized experimental design assigning students to two distinct groups. The first, the treatment group, will participate in the Bank of Italy’s financial education program for Primary Teacher Education. The second, the control group, will not take part in the program.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Assignment to groups will be based on the students’ year of study: fifth‑year students will be allocated to the control group, whereas fourth‑year students will constitute the treatment group.
Randomization Unit
School year.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2 School years (4° and 5°). Each cluster contains 3 classes of students.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The expected sample size is about 200 students.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We anticipate roughly 100 observations per group, with a somewhat larger sample size in the treatment group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Dipartimento di Psicologia Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Commissione Etica per la Ricerca in Psicologia (CERPS)
IRB Approval Date
2026-02-19
IRB Approval Number
18/26
Analysis Plan