Abstract
In any country, financial education can be driven by private and public interests. However, in both cases, trade-offs must be addressed and fixed. Private educators can elicit and educate individuals. However, as education is a credence good, quality-disclosure and conflict-of-interest issues can emerge. In parallel, public institutions can act as third-party certifiers, but political incentives that support inaction can produce quality-disclosure and conflict-of-interest issues. The aim of the article is to use marketing and economics as complementary methodological tools to offer a general analysis in which financial education is the outcome of both market and state forces. The framework is then applied to the case of Italy where, in recent years, private and public players have proposed financial-education initiatives, while a public certifier has also been active in this field.