Fostering savings by commitment: Evidence from a quasi‐natural experiment at the Small Enterprise Foundation in South Africa

Lucia, Dalla Pellegrina, Angela, De Michele, Giorgio Di Maio and Paolo Landoni

No 411, Working Papers from University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the effects of a pilot project that strengthened the saving incentive mechanisms set up by the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF), a leading microfinance institution based in South Africa. The program aimed at introducing a stimulus to save in the form of the possession of “Goal Card” whereby clients owning this tool were asked to identify a saving goal and to commit to a regular saving amount. The experiment had quasinatural approach, as it has been implemented by SEF in selected locations starting from May 2015. Difference in differences estimates show an improvement in the savings performance of the SEF customers treated with the program, compared to the counterfactual. Besides the evaluation of the program’s main effects, we investigate the clients’ understanding of the pilot and their attitude towards saving, as well as the quality of the pilot’s administration and its operational challenges, through the administration and analysis of surveys conducted on both the treated and control groups of clients.

Keywords: Microfinance; quasi-natural experiment; savings. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 I25 L31 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51
Date: 2019-05, Revised 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-mfd
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Journal Article: Fostering savings by commitment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment at The Small Enterprise Foundation in South Africa (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mib:wpaper:411

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