I visited Prof. Piccirilli because of his role as one of the researchers who published "On the Anatomy of Financial Literacy in Italy". This research was conducted over more than a thousand random participants of all ages, over five areas of financial literacy capability, and concluded with results very similar to other European findings. This included that females scored lower, less educated people scored lower, less wealthy people scored lower, and people from regional towns scored lower than those from cities. He was also able to share his work in initiatives to improve teacher and student economics education.
From the abstract of the paper mentioned: Using survey data on a sample of the Italian population, in this paper we offer a comprehensive account of which personal characteristics are associated to adequate financial competence and wise financial behaviour. The study uses five indicators of individual financial competence and behaviour and provides evidence on how each indicator is connected to individual characteristics such as gender, age, marital status, labour market status, income and education. Two indicators measure competence and awareness of the financial environment, while the remaining three capture specific elements of financial behaviour such as attitude towards budget constraints, propensity to save and planning for retirement. As expected, the pattern of correlations is rather homogeneous across the five indicators. In particular, we find that being a woman or being less educated is associated to less familiarity with the financial environment."
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