Research Group at Unibg: Piera Bello, Paolo Buonanno, Annalisa Cristini, Vera Lomazzi, Elena Manzoni, Federica Origo, Marcello Puca.
In collaboration with WeWorld Onlus
Financial literacy and digital knowledge have become crucial determinants of economic well-being, social inclusion and active citizenship.
Yet, the overall level of financial and digital skills around the world remains low and there exist important inequalities across gender and socioeconomic groups, especially education and income groups (Lusardi et al., 2014; Lusardi 2019).
This calls for interventions aiming at increasing financial and digital literacy in the most vulnerable groups. This project aims to deeply investigate gender inequalities in financial and digital skills and how they impact on women’s well-being and empowerment. We will conduct a systematic analysis of inequalities in financial and digital skills among the adult population in Italy and will produce new knowledge and data on the main educational needs of women coming from more disadvantaged groups. Moreover, we will investigate the effectiveness of a pilot education initiative that aims to increase their financial and digital knowledge, confidence, and behaviour, with the final purpose to empower them to protect themselves, become more effective decision-makers, and have an active role in society.
To do so, we will organise focus groups among women using the facilities of WeWorld ONLUS, which is an independent Italian organization that promotes equal opportunities and women’s rights and whose facilities are located in several cities in Italy. We will then exploit an experimental design to evaluate the effects of our pilot intervention.
Our project will provide important insights that will lead to a better understanding of gender educational inequalities and will help policy-makers to implement large-scale interventions in similar contexts and build a more inclusive society.