Commitment or concealment? Impacts and use of a portable saving device: Evidence from a field experiment in urban India

Janina Isabel Steinert, Rucha Vasumati Satish, Felix Stips and Sebastian Vollmer

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, vol. 193, issue C, 367-398

Abstract: To quantify the impact of a novel “soft” commitment intervention, we randomly allocate 1525 Indian slum dwellers to receive a zip purse and a lockbox (treatment) or a lockbox only (control). After six months, we document a 19 percent increase in total savings in the treatment arm. The effect is sustained in a sub-sample of participants we re-interview during the COVID-19 pandemic, twenty months after initial distribution of the devices. While temptation spending was not reduced, additional analyses suggest that the zip purse served as a hiding rather than a self-control device. Our results highlight the importance of considering the role of financial transfers to other household members in future saving promotion programs.

Keywords: Saving; Temptation spending; Commitment device; RCT; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D15 D91 I31 O12 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Commitment or Concealment? Impacts and Use of a Portable Saving Device: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Urban India (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:193:y:2022:i:c:p:367-398

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.11.025

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