Johnny Runge

🪙 'This is the first “gold standard” RCT of financial education in UK primary schools'

@johnnyrunge.bsky.social sets out what policymakers can learn from it

How can we finally make financial education a reality? Our RCT shows how government can deliver what the public at large wants without over-burdening teachers

"Thanks to our latest evidence, we know financial education can be effective, even in primary schools. What’s needed now is leadership and a clear national framework"

@johnnyrunge.bsky.social for @schoolsweek.bsky.social on findings from our major trial of financial education in primary schools

Powering Participation: What we learned from the UK Democracy Fund - Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Through the tireless efforts of our grantee community, the UK Democracy Fund estimates that together we helped register 750,000 voters ahead of the 2024 General Election. Grantees led campaigns in sch...

Published today: our new evaluation with @johnnyrunge.bsky.social ‪ and @domenicaavilaluna.bsky.social. We studied the UK Democracy Fund's efforts to register 750,000 voters in the UK between 2019 and 2024 which saw nearly £2m being awarded to 33 grantees. www.jrrt.org.uk/powering-par...

The hidden use of statistics Abstract. The general public grabs statistics from a variety of not necessarily reliable online sources when making big life decisions from baby names to h

In the latest issue of Significance magazine, our @johnnyrunge.bsky.social explores how the general public are using statistics from a variety of (not necessarily reliable) online sources when making big life decisions from baby names to house moves.

➡️ academic.oup.com/jrssig/artic...

The hidden use of statistics Abstract. The general public grabs statistics from a variety of not necessarily reliable online sources when making big life decisions from baby names to h

@policyatkings.bsky.social's @johnnyrunge.bsky.social in Significance Magazine on trusting stats - from baby names to house moves - and how official stats should respond: doi.org/10.1093/jrss...

ESCoE work: tinyurl.com/a4zr89un

Evaluation of Access to Work Plus Qualitative research on the impact, feasibility and delivery of Access to Work for the Department for Work and Pensions.

We published our @policyatkings.bsky.social research on Access to Work (AtW) Plus, a DWP pilot for those needing more support than standard AtW. Overall, we found positive experiences & impact, but also challenges with eligibility, timelines, and implementation. www.kcl.ac.uk/research/eva...

Great to see the launch of this new @policyatkings.bsky.social report.

This links with ESCoE work on communicating and valuing economic statistics, in partnership with @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social, @niesrorg.bsky.social, @bankofengland.bsky.social and many others: tinyurl.com/43a5w8vw

This is genuinely really interesting, at least for a data nerd. The proportion of people who use government statistics to make major decisions, while <50%, is still higher than I would have thought.

Surprised me, too! (as one of authors). There are caveats as outlined in the report, but they go both ways - number may both be lower (because people overestimate when self reporting) and higher (as we found plenty of evidence that people sometimes use stats without realising)

How official statistics shape personal decisions In our latest blog post, OSR’s Head of Research describes a recent project which explored how individuals use statistics in their personal lives, leading to practical recommendations for statistics pr...

"The power of statistics lies not only in shaping policy decisions that may feel distant, but also right on our doorstep, by enriching our everyday lives."

Sofi Nickson, Head of Research at the Office for Statistics Regulation, writes about our new study on how the public make use of official stats

Thanks! They might very well do, and would be fascinating to explore - but this was not one of the areas we specifically explored during the interviews or survey. Partly because we didn't wish to get into too sensitive topics during the interviews.

NEW: Our @policyatkings.bsky.social research, commissioned by Office for Statistics Regulation is out today! I am particularly proud to contribute to OSR's efforts to ensure official statistics are, and can be, used directly by the wider UK public, and not just policymakers & stats geeks like us!

Amazing, thanks, added all! (and feel free to add me into it🙃).

The Knowledge Gap in Economics: What Does the Public Know about the... The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. [The physicist] cannot proceed without considering critically a much more difficult problem, the problem of analyzing th...

Last publication of last year, with Pavel Kuchar (#9 together) in Oeconomia:

The Knowledge Gap in Economics: What Does the Public Know about the Economy and What Do Economists Know about the Public?

In it we respond to the widespread belief that the public is economically ignorant: "They aren't!"

Thanks! Will take a look and see whether I'm still outraged..

Can't access this due to pay wall. Is there a link to the trial? It sounds frankly ridiculous as they seek to include qual interviews...

🎓 We've made a starter pack of university policy institutes like us, and people who work for/are connected to them – do give it a follow!

We'll add to it as more institutes join, and let us know if there's anyone we should add! ⬇️

Would love to be added, thanks! :)

The very human problem with not-quite-self-driving cars The better an automated system performs, the more complacent — and dangerous — we become

“The public don’t quite understand the subtle ways that automation affects their attention [but] it’s like giving people a sedative” - why expecting human drivers to vigilantly monitor partially-automated cars isn't a great idea www.ft.com/content/6734...

Jonathan: watch out with messing up with maths curriculum. The U.K. are doing really well on numeracy skills at the moment, against international trends. Thinks it’s great to hear this programme is not necessarily about this.

Ruston: Money drives everything, including mental health.

Bernice: Many different approaches to maths and numeracy in schools. Complicates things if you want to integrate financial education into maths. But financial education is not all about numeracy.

Susannah Hume (lead researcher) says financial education needs to earn its place on the curriculum. There is a research gap on whether teaching about money not only improves knowledge about money but also on behaviour. Our research will hopefully help address this gap.

Jonathan Slater (former DfE perm sec) says there is only so much time in the school day - what has to go? Cooking? PE? Or do we ask for financial education to be included in maths? It’s a zero sum game. Need to make the case well to the DfE

Bernice (headteacher) talks about the pressures on primary teachers, but says Change the Game can be fitted into the busy day-to-day school life, without putting undue burden on teachers. It’s not weekly, all materials are ready for teachers, and pupils find the workshops exciting and aspirational!

On to the panel! Ruston Smith says money & money management have become invisible and insular, when it’s all online and not physical. More need for financial education than before! Starting in schools.

We found positive impacts on financial knowledge and ability already after one and two years. Also on financial mindset, but not yet on financial behaviour. Which is expected - evidence shows it takes much longer to affect behaviour. Which is why it is a longitudinal trial!

Some of the results from our survey with Reception pupils, conducted as a narrative story featuring a bear! These pupils will be followed over the next 6 years to see if there are differences between control and treatment pupils in the trial.

Ready for our event later tonight on financial education! Will try to do some tweeting (wait, bsky-ing?) #financialeducation @policyatkings.bsky.social

You still have time to abandon plans with friends for this evening and join our @policyatkings.bsky.social event on the future of financial education & our research findings on the (spoiler: positive) impact of financial education in primary schools...

Join us ➡️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1028009142...

Our event tomorrow on financial education, hosted with RedSTART Educate, is featured in this morning's Wonk Week email from the Social Market Foundation.

We've got a great panel lined up to discuss how to convert political interest into real change

Join us ➡️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1028009142...