Challenges in assessing the effectiveness of financial education programs: The Colombian case

Financial Education Programs –FEP– enjoy widespread governmental and private support and are considered essential tools for improving financial literacy, encouraging financial inclusion, and increasing consumer financial protection. Therefore, assessing their effectiveness is critical to guarantee that public and private resources are allocated wisely. The available empirical literature casts serious doubts on the effectiveness of FEP in achieving their objectives. Even properly designed –from an impact evaluation viewpoint– FEP fail to deliver long-run effects on individuals’ financial literacy or financial outcomes. We highlight the challenges to evaluate the impact of FEP. We showcase the international experience in assessing the effectiveness of these programs and offer a set of recommendations regarding the attributes that FEP should have to allow serious policy evaluation.