Gender Differences in Personal Financial Literacy Among College Students

Abstract

Surveying financial literacy among college students, we find that women generally have less knowledge about personal finance topics. Gender differences remain statistically significant after controlling for other factors such as participants' majors, class rank, work experience, and age. We do find, however, that education and experience can have a significant impact on the financial literacy of both men and women. We observe that women generally have less enthusiasm for, lower confidence in, and less willingness to learn about personal finance topics than men do. College women (men) rate English and humanity (Mathematics and science) courses more important. We argue that the study paves the way for future research and has important policy implications given the women tend to outlive men.