HSE Researchers: Young Russians Have Sufficient Knowledge About Money but Lack Money Management Skills
Adolescents and young adults in Russia today are well versed in financial terminology: they know what bank cards, loans, interest rates, and online payments are. However, as researchers at HSE University have found, real money-management skills remain poorly developed among most young people. The study ‘Financial Literacy, Financial Culture, and Financial Autonomy of Youth’ has been published in Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes.
Improving young people’s financial literacy remains a key priority of government policy, with the aim of developing competencies needed by the new generation to use the full range of financial products effectively and safely.
However, it is important to understand the current situation in order to develop effective measures. Olga Kuzina, professor at the HSE Department of Economic Sociology, and Artem Abduramanov, doctoral student at HSE ICEF, examined what financial autonomy is, its level among young people, and which socio-demographic characteristics it may be associated with.
The researchers analysed survey results collected as part of HSE University’s Economic Behaviour of Households project. The respondents included school, college, and university students aged 15 to 19 from major Russian cities. The study authors examined whether young people have developed the knowledge, habits, and attitudes needed to manage their personal finances confidently and responsibly—earning money, managing it competently, keeping records, and planning expenses.
To assess these skills, the researchers introduced a measure of financial autonomy rated on a scale from 0 to 9 points. It takes into account work experience and earnings, the habit of keeping records of income and expenses, attitudes toward budget planning, the propensity to save, and the level of financial knowledge.
Olga Kuzina
'As a result, the average financial autonomy score was only 3.8 points, indicating a low level of financial autonomy among young people. At the same time, almost one in two survey participants is confident that they know perfectly well how to handle money,' Prof. Kuzina noted.
The study also revealed that personal experience plays a key role in shaping financial autonomy. Adolescents who already earn money themselves better understand the value of money and learn to handle it more responsibly. The level of financial autonomy is associated with factors such as age, university education, the mother’s level of education, and obtaining financial information via the internet. However, according to the authors, financial literacy classes taught in schools have only a short-term effect.
The researchers also highlighted gender differences: on average, boys were more financially autonomous than girls. This may be due to differences in gender roles, as young men tend to start working earlier and are more likely to have greater freedom in managing money.
The authors emphasise that their findings are important for designing effective financial education programmes. According to the researchers, if the government truly aims to improve financial literacy, it is necessary not only to teach about money but also to create opportunities for adolescents to gain real-life financial experience.
'People of all ages need to improve their financial literacy, but developing this skill in young people aged 15 to 25 is especially important, as stable habits and ways of thinking—a kind of financial character—are formed during these years. How an individual learns to manage money in their youth largely shapes the financial decisions they will make later in life,' summarises Prof. Kuzina.
See also:
The 'Second Shift' Is Not Why Women Avoid News
Women are more likely than men to avoid political and economic news, but the reasons for this behaviour are linked less to structural inequality or family-related stress than to personal attitudes and the emotional perception of news content. This conclusion was reached by HSE researchers after analysing data from a large-scale survey of more than 10,000 residents across 61 regions of Russia. The study findings have been published in Woman in Russian Society.
Resource Race and Green Transition: Three Unexpected Conclusions from Foresight Centre’s Research on Climate and Poverty
Beneath the surface of green energy—which most people associate with solar panels, electric vehicles, and reduced CO2 emissions—lies a complex web of geopolitical interests, international inequality, and resource constraints. Researchers from the Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies (LST) at the HSE ISSEK Foresight Centre have published a series of articles in leading international journals on hidden and overt conflicts surrounding critically important metals and minerals, as well as related processes in the energy sector.
Immersion in Second Language Environment Influences Bilinguals’ Perception of Emotions
Researchers at the Cognitive Health and Intelligence Centre at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have discovered how bilingual individuals process emotional words in their native (first) and non-native (second) languages. It was found that the link between word meaning and bodily sensations is weaker in a second language than in a first language. However, the more a person is immersed in a language environment, the smaller this difference becomes. The article has been published in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.
Researchers Find More Effective Approach to Revealing Majorana Zero Modes in Superconductors
An international team of researchers, including physicists from HSE MIEM, has demonstrated that nonmagnetic impurities can help more accurately reveal Majorana zero modes—quantum states considered promising building blocks for quantum computing. The researchers found that these impurities shift the energy levels that typically obscure the Majorana signal, while leaving the mode itself largely unaffected, thereby making its spectral peak more distinct. The study has been published in Research.
New Development by HSE Scientists Helps Design Reliable Electronics Faster at a Lower Cost
Scientists from HSE MIEM have developed a new approach to modelling electrothermal processes in high-power electronic circuits on printed circuit boards (PCB). The method allows engineers to quickly and accurately predict how electronic components heat up during operation, helping prevent overheating and potential failures. The results have been published in Russian Microelectronics.
The Future of Cardiogenetics Lies in Artificial Intelligence
Researchers from the AI and Digital Science Institute at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science have developed a program capable of analysing regions of the human genome that were previously inaccessible for accurate interpretation in genetic testing. The program adapts large generative AI (GenAI) models for cardiogenetics to predict how specific mutations affect the function of individual genes.
Why Weaker Competitors Give Up—and How to Keep Them in the Game
Anastasia Antsygina, Assistant Professor at HSE University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences, has developed a prize distribution model that maximises competitor engagement. She proposed revising the traditional ‘winner-takes-all’ approach and, in certain cases, offering a small reward even to those who have lost. According to her, this could increase participant motivation and make the competition more intense. The findings of her research were published in the Economic Theory journal.
HSE Researchers Compile Scientific Database for Studying Children’s Eating Habits
The database created at HSE University can serve as a foundation for studying children’s eating habits. This is outlined in the study ‘The Influence of Age, Gender, and Social-Role Factors on Children’s Compliance with Age-Based Nutritional Norms: An Experimental Study Using the Dish-I-Wish Web Application.’ The work has been carried out as part of the HSE Basic Research Programme and was presented at the XXVI April International Academic Conference named after Evgeny Yasin.
New Foresight Centre Study Identifies the Most Destructive Global Trends for Humankind
A team of researchers from the HSE International Research and Educational Foresight Centre has examined how global trends affect the quality of human life—from life expectancy to professional fulfilment. The findings of the study titled ‘Human Capital Transformation under the Influence of Global Trends’ were published in Foresight.
Scientists Develop Algorithm for Accurate Financial Time Series Forecasting
Researchers at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science benchmarked more than 200,000 model configurations for predicting financial asset prices and realised volatility, showing that performance can be improved by filtering out noise at specific frequencies in advance. This technique increased accuracy in 65% of cases. The authors also developed their own algorithm, which achieves accuracy comparable to that of the best models while requiring less computational power. The study has been published in Applied Soft Computing.