Economic‐financial literacy and (sustainable) pension reforms: Why the former is a key ingredient for the latter

Financial literacy has important implications for economic reforms. Reforms are meant to change people’s behavior and their effectiveness crucially depends on the ability of citizens to recognize and generally approve their necessity, their general design, and their “sense of direction.” Without basic understanding by citizens, reforms risk having little or no effect or even being reversed. Informed judgment about economic reforms requires information and numeracy as well as literacy. This is particularly true of pension reforms because of their profound impact on people’s life plans. The 2011 Italian pension reform is a case in point.