| Popis: |
My core theme in the three essays presented here is Personal Financial Literacy (PFL) and Early Financial Literacy (EFL) in particular. EFL refers to instilling the basic financial planning concepts in Grades K-12. The need for EFL has been recognized in the U.S. and globally in recent years. For example, the Texas Education Agency has begun to incorporate financial planning curriculum from K-12. The first of my three essays examines the value of PFL to society in macro terms by exploring the association between a states’ financial literacy, real Gross State Product per-capita (GSP) and real income per-capita (INC). It utilizes data from National Finacial Capability Study (NFCS) and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The second essay studies the association between PFL and Math Literacy (ML) among 15-year-old students based on international data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It explores the value of ML in determining PFL. The third essay examines the same association among 8th-grade students using the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). In all these cases, the associations are substantive and statistically significant, holding the socioeconomic variables constant. Of specific interest in the first essay, there is an increase in PFL by about a third and is associated with an increase in state-level GSP per capita by over a third. This, in turn, is equivalent to increasing the number of college graduates by 75% to increase GSP by about 33%. A supplemental analysis shows that an increase in PFL by about a third is associated with an increase in state-level income per capita by over a third. This, in turn, is equivalent to increasing the number of college graduates by 130% to increase INC by about 33%. However, increasing the level of PFL by about 33% may be more realistic than nearly doubling the number of college graduates, given that PFL in an industrialized country like Germany has been attained at a level about 75% more than that in the U.S. The second essay finds a strong association between financial planning and math literacies from data on 15-year-old students internationally. The marginal effect of math literacy on PFL is 0.71 percentage point. The third essay also finds a strong association between financial planning and math literacies from data on 8th grade (mainly 13-year-old) students in the Texas public school system. The marginal effect of math literacy on PFL is 0.63. These findings of an association between financial planning and math literacies support TEA’s decision to integrate the new PFL lessons with math in Texas Schools. The STAAR data will continue to be analyzed as the first cohort that started PFL in Kindergarten in 2012-13 graduates from 8th grade in 2020-21. The first PFL cohort from Kindergarten will be in the 12th grade in 2024-25 when the effectiveness of the PFL initiative in Texas schools can begin to be assessed thoroughly. |
