Does Financial Literacy Education Improve Employment Outcomes? Evidence from State Graduation Requirements

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of state-mandated financial literacy graduation requirements on labor market outcomes. Beginning with Utah in 2008, states have progressively required high school students to complete personal finance coursework before graduation. By 2025, 30 states have adopted such requirements. I exploit this staggered policy adoption using a difference-in-differences design with cohort-based treatment assignment. Using IPUMS American Community Survey data from 2010–2024 covering over 6 million young adults, I compare employment outcomes for cohorts exposed to mandatory financial literacy education in their state of birth against cohorts that were not exposed. I implement the Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) estimator to account for heterogeneous treatment effects across adoption cohorts. I find no statistically significant effect on employment rates: the average treatment effect on the treated is 0.17 percentage points (95% CI: $-$3.1 to 3.4 pp). Effects on weeks worked and college completion are similarly null. These findings suggest that while financial literacy education may have benefits for financial decision-making, it does not appear to meaningfully improve aggregate labor market outcomes for young adults, at least within the limited post-treatment window currently observable.