Together with the University of Mainz and the University of Marburg, the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE has launched the research project “Lifelong Learning and Innovative Financial Education for All” (INNOFIB). The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and aims to research the state of financial education across different social strata in Germany and formulate measures for improvement.
In addition to SAFE researchers Olga Balakina, Kamila Duraj, Jakob Famulok and Lena Liebich, Andrej Gill and Florian Hett from the University of Mainz and Oscar Stolper, University of Marburg, are involved in the project. The project is led by Christine Laudenbach, head of the Household Finance research department at SAFE.
Development of innovative formats for financial education
Initially, the researchers will conduct a field study, investigating the current situation of financial education and its distributional effects in Germany. The focus is on systematic differences between different social classes and age groups, as well as possible explanations for these differences.
The research team will then develop concepts for improving financial education. The first focus will be on schools. Further, the team will examine future innovations and adaptations in non-traditional learning environments: “Sustainable financial education must go beyond the purely scholastic context. It should be lifelong, dynamically changing in its content and generally go beyond the mere transfer of knowledge,” explains project manager Christine Laudenbach. “With the INNOFIB project, we can not only contribute to better financial education, but also to more equal opportunities in the education system.”
