The role of education interventions in improving economic rationality

Educating for economic rationality The hypothesis that education enhances economic decision-making has been surprisingly underexplored. Kim et al. studied this question using a randomized control trial in a sample of 2812 girls in secondary schools in Malawi. Four years after providing financial support for a year's schooling, they presented the subjects with a set of decision problems (for example, allocating funds to immediate versus future expenses) that test economic rationality. The education intervention enhanced both educational outcomes and economic rationality as measured by consistency with utility maximization in the long run. Science , this issue p. 83