Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from Three Countries

Pascaline Dupas, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Robinson and Diego Ubfal

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 257-97

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: D14 G21 O12 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20160597
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (113)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from Three Countries (2016)
Working Paper: Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from three countries (2016)
Working Paper: Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from Three Countries (2016)
Working Paper: Banking the Unbanked? Evidence From Three Countries (2016)
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