Conference in Tallinn was a success!
Text: Estonian Business School, English translation: Eliise Lehtsaar
From 3.–4. of June, an international hybrid conference on financial literacy was held in Tallinn, bringing together experts from more than ten countries across Europe. The conference discussed how to improve consumers' financial well-being, what digital solutions are suitable for this purpose and whether financial education alone is enough.
“Estonian adolescents have very good financial knowledge. They understand how to prepare a budget, they know the basics of investing, understand inflation and the interest rate as the future price of money. At the same time, there is room for improvement in financial behaviour, i.e. in the wise use of money,” said Kaire Põder, Professor of Economic Theory at the Estonian Business School and a member of the EUFin team. Põder added that although Estonia is at the top of the rankings in the PISA financial literacy survey, other OECD surveys show that financial behavior, i.e. saving money, accumulating financial resources and paying bills on time, often leaves much to be desired for adults.
Madis Müller, Governor of Eesti Pank, said that we are proud of our education system in Estonia, but there is still much to be done in promoting financial literacy, i.e. sharing knowledge on how to better manage our finances. “Lack of basic financial knowledge makes it more difficult for people to plan their personal finances successfully. In order to fill such financial gaps, we have an extensive cooperation network in Estonia.”
Leonore Riitsalu, a researcher in behavioral policy-making at the University of Tartu and the member of the EUFin team, believes that in order to increase financial well-being, one must first understand that financial well-being does not mean wealth. “Achieving financial well-being does not necessarily mean becoming a millionaire, but that a person is able to maintain their current lifestyle and achieve the desired lifestyle in the future. Financial literacy and conscious behavior are the means to achieve this,” explained Riitsalu.
The conference in Tallinn was the final conference of a three-year Erasmus+ project EUFin as well. In EUFin experts from five countries – Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia – partnered for developing innovative financial education resources for schools and universities. In Tallinn, the key outcomes of this project were introduced and shared for using around the world.