Financial education: what national project?
Despite decades of debate on financial education, Italy continues to lag behind in international rankings and struggles to translate awareness into concrete behaviors. There are many high-quality initiatives, but their impact remains limited: too often, projects are designed around the needs of the providers rather than those of the beneficiaries. What’s needed is a new approach that focuses not only on knowledge, but above all on behavior, since it is precisely between theory and practice that habits and not always rational choices come into play.
The path to widespread and truly effective financial literacy must start in schools, with projects that involve teachers across all subjects – not just mathematics – supported by a core group of experts who prepare reliable and easily accessible materials. This is the principle behind the Financial Education Lab (FEL) at Bocconi University, developed as part of the MUSA project funded by the PNRR.
