Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324216 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2025-007
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Jena
Abstract: 
Financial literacy is an important prerequisite for making informed financial decisions, but it remains low, especially among women and older people. Internalized stereotypes can undermine confidence and subsequently affect behavior in financial matters, leading to suboptimal decisions. This paper investigates how stereotype salience affects confidence in financial literacy. In an information provision experiment, we inform respondents about age or gender differences in numeracy to examine the impact on financial literacy, confidence, hypothetical investment and saving decisions, and demand for information and education. We find that being informed about age differences has no significant effect. In contrast, being informed about gender differences increases the confidence of male respondents through a stereotype boost, while leaving female respondents largely unaffected.
Subjects: 
survey experiment
numeracy
gender stereotypes
age stereotypes
JEL: 
C90
D91
G53
I24
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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