TY - JOUR
T1 - Banking the unbanked? Evidence from three countries
AU - Dupas, Pascaline
AU - Karlan, Dean
AU - Robinson, Jonathan
AU - Ubfal, Diego
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Economic Association.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - We experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17, 10, and 3 percent of treatment individuals made five or more deposits, respectively. Average monthly deposits in treatment accounts were sizable among users, corresponding to the seventy-ninth, ninety-first, and ninety-sixth percentiles of baseline savings. Survey data show no discernible intention-to-treat effects on savings or any downstream outcomes, though we cannot reject large effect sizes for active users. Results suggest that policies merely focused on expanding access to basic accounts are unlikely to improve welfare noticeably on average.
AB - We experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17, 10, and 3 percent of treatment individuals made five or more deposits, respectively. Average monthly deposits in treatment accounts were sizable among users, corresponding to the seventy-ninth, ninety-first, and ninety-sixth percentiles of baseline savings. Survey data show no discernible intention-to-treat effects on savings or any downstream outcomes, though we cannot reject large effect sizes for active users. Results suggest that policies merely focused on expanding access to basic accounts are unlikely to improve welfare noticeably on average.
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U2 - 10.1257/app.20160597
DO - 10.1257/app.20160597
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85045065322
SN - 1945-7782
VL - 10
SP - 257
EP - 297
JO - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
JF - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
IS - 2
ER -