Financial literacy and financial crime: A regression discontinuity approach
利用出生日期导致的政策断点，研究发现高中必修金融素养课程使个人金融犯罪倾向降低37%，尤其减少贪污行为，对低收入群体效果更明显，主要源于家庭财务状况改善。
This study investigates how financial literacy shapes the propensity of individuals to commit financial crime. Using state-level administrative data on criminal charges linked to comprehensive public records , we exploit a policy-based discontinuity in grade level assignment based on individual birth dates that exogenously requires certain high school cohorts to attend a financial literacy course. Our estimates suggest that exposure to the course reduces the propensity to commit financial crime by 37%. The reduction is driven by declines in embezzlement and is stronger for low-income individuals. Additional evidence suggests that the reductions are primarily explained by improvements in household balance sheets.