Investire nel futuro: potenzialità e sfide dei programmi di risparmio per l’istruzione

The increasing concentration of wealth generates new interest in the issue of inequality of opportunity among the younger generations and possible policy solutions. The article reviews the main experiences and evaluation evidence about asset building programs: Individual Development Accounts and Children’s Savings Accounts. While characterized by some important differences – the former targeted to adults and open to multiple investment purposes, the latter targeted to children and specifically aimed at sustaining expenditures in post-secondary education – the common feature of these instruments is to support households’ savings aimed at the acquisition of wealth-generating assets, education first and foremost. Overall, although still ongoing and mainly limited to the North American context, a growing number of evaluation studies report encouraging results about the potential of these programs in raising investment in education and training among lower- and middle-income families. A consolidated body of empirical evidence in support of these programs is still lacking for Italy, but a number of experimentations are providing useful insights. This review offers useful elements for the debate on renewing measures to combat education inequality and financial aid policies.