Banking for Boomers – A Field Experiment on Technology Adoption in Financial Services

Katharina Hartinger (), Erik Sarrazin () and David Streich ()
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Katharina Hartinger: Johannes-Gutenberg University, Germany
Erik Sarrazin: Johannes-Gutenberg University, Germany
David Streich: Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

No 2505, Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Abstract: Digitalization in banking is leaving elderly clients at risk of losing access to financial services, but little is known about technology adoption at an advanced age. Using data from more than 27,000 elderly clients of a large German savings bank, we evaluate the inclusiveness and effectiveness of training interventions to foster internet banking adoption: We document selection into training and attrition along the multi-stage adoption process. Randomizing 333 responding clients into different types of training (self-guided versus social learning), we find that the share of clients who use internet banking increases by 26 percentage points after training relative to a matched control group. In terms of sustainable usage, the share of online transactions increases by 13 percentage points and remains elevated four months later. An extensive placebo analysis suggests that as much as 85% of the effect can be causally attributed to the training interventions. Treatment effects are larger for women and those not in charge of household finances. We further shed light on practical considerations when rolling out large-scale technology adoption interventions in this age group. Specifically, we show that the type of training impacts dropout differentially despite similar treatment effects overall, with the social learning treatment being more inclusive and more effective at helping participants develop strategies to overcome key adoption barriers.

Keywords: technology adoption; internet banking; financial inclusion; digitalization; non-cognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D12 D91 G21 I21 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2025-06-17, Revised 2025-09-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-fle, nep-ict, nep-lma and nep-pay
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