Financial Literacy around the World is a World Bank research paper by Lisa Xu and Bilal Zia reviewing global evidence on financial literacy and what actually works to improve it.
Summary: The paper reviews survey data and program evaluations from dozens of countries and finds financial literacy is low almost everywhere, worse among women, youth, the elderly, and lower-income groups. Education programs get mixed results: mortgage counseling and peer-driven nudges tend to work, classroom courses often don’t change behavior, and business training helps men far more than women. Delivery format matters too, video and interactive tools often beat lectures, and sometimes subsidies or consumer protections outperform education alone.
Big Idea: Financial education isn’t a one-size-fits-all fix. Its effectiveness depends heavily on who’s being taught, what specific skill or behavior is being targeted, and how the information is delivered, so a program that works for retirees planning pensions might completely fail for young entrepreneurs trying to grow a business.
Playable Takeaway: Female entrepreneurs often benefit less from business training than men, not from lacking knowledge but from social constraints on their time and decisions. A game could give two characters the same financial lesson but different outside pressures, showing how much the outcome can actually change.