2026 Stanford Financial Education Symposium

The 2026 Stanford Financial Education Symposium was held from April 23 to 24, 2026. Researchers from around the globe presented their work at Stanford University.

We thank the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) for their support as well as for sponsoring the Financial Literacy Research Award and the Rising Financial Literacy Scholar Award.

Financial Literacy Research Award for the best submitted paper
Marta Cota, Nova School of Business and Economics | Financial Skills and Search in the Mortgage Market

Rising Financial Literacy Scholar Award for the best poster presentations by PhD students
Iris SooJin Park, University of Wisconsin-Madison | The Impact of Decision Aids on Health Insurance Selection
Xingyu Shen, University of Rochester | From High School Ledgers to College Majors: High School Financial Education, Career Choices, and Human Capital

Program

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Welcome Remarks and Updates on the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making

• J. Michael Dedmon, National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE)
• Annamaria Lusardi, Initiative for Financial Decision-Making (IFDM), Stanford University

Session 1: Online Sports Betting

Session Chair: Sally Gainsbury, University of Sydney 

• Mandeep Singh, University of Sydney
  Wins, Windfalls and Willpower: Liquidity and Self-Regulation in Online Sports Gambling
  Paper | Presentation
• Nick Grasley and Mariana Guido, Stanford University
  Do Sports Bettors Need Consumer Protection? Evidence from a Field Experiment
  Paper | Presentation

Session 2: Generative AI and Household Impact

Session Chair: Alberto Rossi, Georgetown University 

• Tim de Silva, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  How Good is Generative AI Personal Financial Advice?
  Paper | Presentation
• Michael Blank, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  The Household Impact of Generative AI: Evidence from Internet Browsing Behavior
  Paper | Presentation

Session 3: Measurement and Retirement Decision-Making

Session Chair: Franca Glenzer, HEC Montréal 

• Jeremy Burke, University of Southern California
  Is Financial Knowledge Really Declining? Randomized Evidence on the Effects of Smartphone Responses
  Paper | Presentation
• Anita Mukherjee, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Asset Decumulation in Retirement: Patterns, Predictors, and the Role of Financial Literacy
  Paper | Presentation
• Oksana Smirnova, Cornell University
  Learning About the Stock Market: Asset Allocation Spillovers from Defined Contribution Pension Plan Access
  Paper | Presentation

Session 4: Investor Behavior

Session Chair: Gary Mottola, FINRA Investor Education Foundation 

• Saumitra Jha, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  Seeing Green: The Effects of Financial Exposure on Support for Climate Action
  Paper | Presentation
• Xinyu Zhang, Cornell University
  The Impact of Financial Education Resources on Novice Investors
  Presentation

Friday, April 24, 2026

Session 5: Measuring Financial Literacy and its Economic Implications

Session Chair: Ryan Rholes, University of Mississippi 

• Tim Kaiser, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
  Economic Literacy: Measurement, Expectations, and Policy Views
  Presentation
• Marta Cota, Nova School of Business and Economics
  Financial Skills and Search in the Mortgage Market
  Paper | Presentation

Session 6: Financial Literacy and the Transmission of Monetary Policy

Session Chair: Annamaria Lusardi, Initiative for Financial Decision-Making (IFDM), Stanford University

• Diogo Guillen, Visiting Scholar at SIEPR and Former Deputy Governor for Economic Policy at the Banco Central do Brasil
• Diego Mendez-Carbajo, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Session 7: Program Evaluation of Financial Education

Session Chair: Hakan Ozyilmaz, Initiative for Financial Decision-Making (IFDM), Stanford University

• Ernesto Villaneuva, Bank of Spain
  Five-Year Impacts of High School Financial Education on Knowledge, Preferences, and Schooling Decisions
  Paper | Presentation
• Bill Skimmyhorn, Raymond A. Mason School of Business, William & Mary
  Evaluating the Effectiveness of Financial Coaching: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial with Catholic Charities Dallas
  Paper | Presentation
• Ray Charles Howard, University of Virginia Darden School of Business
  Youth Participation in Financial Education: A Large-Scale Field Experiment
  Paper | Presentation

Lunch & Poster Discussion

• Ravisha Chutani, University of Georgia
  Consumer Adoption of AI in Financial Planning: How Prior Technology Adoption Moderates the Impact of Financial Capability
• Varun Gande, Stanford University
  Annuitization Puzzle: Evidence from Lottery Outcomes
• Arnav Hiray, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Credit Cards, Confusion, Computation, and Consequences: How Well Do LMs Reason About Financial Literacy?
• Iris SooJin Park, University of Wisconsin
  The Impact of Decision Aids on Health Insurance Selection
• Xingyu Shen, University of Rochester
  From High School Ledgers to College Majors: High School Financial Education, Career Choices, and Human Capital
• Elaine Shen, University of California, Berkeley
  Dollars and Sense: Self-Selection in Financial Literacy Education

Session 8: Gender Gap and Multigenerational Households

Session Chair: Filipe Correia, University of Georgia Terry College of Business

• Selale Tüzel, USC Marshall School of Business
  The Paradox of Opportunity: Socioeconomic Origins of Financial Gender Gaps
  Paper | Presentation
• Nathanael Vellekoop, University of Chicago
  Gender Differences in Reactions to Income Shocks
  Paper | Presentation
• Jeffrey Anvari-Clark, University of North Dakota
  Financial Interdependence in Multigenerational Households: Universal Orientation, Contextual Diversity, and the Primary of Financial Efficacy Over Financial Education Participation
  Presentation

Session 9: Credit and Financial Literacy

Session Chair: Francis Murphy, U.S. Military Academy West Point

• Daniel Herbst, University of Arizona
  Credit Access in the United States
  Paper | Presentation
• Nicholas Sougiannis, US Naval Academy
  Financial Literacy Amongst High-Performance Leaders: The State of Financial Literacy at the United States Naval Academy
  Paper | Presentation

Financial Literacy Research Award Ceremony and Closing Remarks

• Madelyn Smith, National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE)
• Annamaria Lusardi, Initiative for Financial Decision-Making (IFDM), Stanford University