The financial crisis focussed the attention of governments around the world on the critical need to empower consumers through financial education. As governments launch new initiatives to improve their population’s financial skills, demand has grown for research to guide the development of these initiatives as well as tools to measure their impact and effectiveness. The OECD is working hard to meet this demand, providing guidance to governments and other concerned stakeholders based on research and tools developed over the past decade.

The OECD would like to thank the Bank of Italy for its co-operation in organising and hosting the OECD-Bank of Italy International Symposium on Financial Literacy. The OECD is grateful to the authors for their valuable contributions of each of the chapters contained in this volume.

This book draws together expert opinions and recommendations on a number of cutting edge issues presented at the OECD-Bank of Italy Symposium on Financial literacy held in Rome on 9 June 2010. Such issues include the measurement of financial literacy, the evaluation of financial education programmes and the application of findings from behavioural economics, in order to improve financial education provision.