State-Mandated Financial Education

A National Database of Graduation Requirements, 1970-2014

finra

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

With support from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, researchers from Montana State University and the Federal Reserve Board created a new database of state-mandated high school personal finance and economics education requirements, spanning the years 1970 through 2014, for all 50 states. The database provides unprecedented detail about state financial education standards, as well as available information about whether the state requires the personal finance or economics content to be included on standardized tests required for graduation.

By providing a comprehensive database of state financial education mandates, the authors hope to spur further research into the effect of these mandates on later-life financial outcomes. Moreover, these data will allow researchers to redo previous analyses of financial education mandates with greater confidence that they are accurately examining state policies and generating reliable estimates of their effectiveness. Given the widespread interest in personal finance and economics education in schools, the research produced using these data will be influential in forming future policy decisions around financial education mandates.