From stories to skills: The impact of narrative-based financial education on students’ knowledge and behavior

We study a low-cost, teacher-led program for 4th–5th graders in Brazilian public schools that embeds financial, fiscal, and civic concepts in short, comics-based stories paired with structured class activities. We evaluate a school-level randomized trial in Brazil’s capital Brasília covering 106 schools ( ≈ 13,600 students). Outcomes – knowledge and self-reported habits/beliefs – were measured with an age-appropriate instrument administered in person by an independent survey firm under exam-like conditions. Intent-to-treat estimates on a complete-case analysis sample show gains of 0.10 SD in financial knowledge, 0.06 SD in fiscal knowledge, and 0.06 SD in civic knowledge, all statistically significant and robust to alternative treatments of missing responses. We also find significant improvements in declared financial habits and beliefs and in civic beliefs. Beyond knowledge and beliefs, students also report greater school interest, more family interaction around money and public services, and higher future-self expectations. Placebo outcomes not targeted by the program, such as mathematics and monitoring of common goods at school, show no robust impacts. Monitoring data indicate that higher teacher engagement with the materials is associated with better student outcomes. Overall, the results indicate that culturally salient narrative media, delivered during regular class time, can measurably improve targeted economic and civic competencies at scale.