Financial knowledge of pre-university students: Effects of age and gender

Financial education is a constant social concern since it is essential to improve the well-being of individuals and society in general. Wrong financial decisions can have serious consequences that lead to serious economic and even social problems. Therefore, an adequate financial base is necessary and must be instilled from an early age. This work aims to identify the potential effects of two demographic variables, age and gender, on acquiring financial knowledge, delving into the potential moderating interrelationships between them. Applying a set of multi-level (mixed-effects) regression models to a sample of 9917 pre-university students from 175 high schools in Andalusia, our results show that: age and gender are significantly related to the acquisition of financial knowledge of pre-university students. Moreover, gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between age and the acquisition of financial knowledge of pre-university students. This study has practical implications for teachers, students, heads of educational centres and those responsible for educational plans because this paper's results help to better understand the key factors of financial education at a pre-college stage as it identifies significant differences in both age and gender. Policymakers responsible for educational plans are provided with the necessary evidence to propose adapting specific actions to the different student profiles. By doing so, they may design measures to make citizens' financial inclusion possible, resulting in greater welfare for society.