This study examines whether high school mandates for economics and personal-finance courses function as complements or substitutes in their association with financial-knowledge. Using data from the National Financial Capability Study, combined with state-level education policy data, this study determines the relationship between students’ self-assessed and test-based financial-knowledge. The results indicate that there is a correlation with test-based financial-knowledge than with self-assessed financial-knowledge. The three-year lag of the economics mandate is positively correlated with test-based financial-knowledge, whereas the interaction term for having both the economics and personal-finance mandates indicates a negative correlation. This suggests that combining both mandates does not necessarily show an improved outcome compared with having each mandate separately. Further analysis, which compares ‘both’ course-mandates and ‘either’ course-mandates, reveals a similar pattern in the short-term; the long-term correlations were inconsistent. Overall, the findings suggest that economics and personal-finance mandates may function more as substitutes than as complements, particularly in the short run.
Jahan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.