Financial Education and Savings Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment among Low-Income Clients of Branchless Banking in India

Margherita Calderone, Nathan Fiala, Florentina Mulaj, Santadarshan Sadhu and Leopold Sarr

Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2018, vol. 66, issue 4, 793 - 825

Abstract: Financial literacy programs are popular, despite limited evidence that they lead to significant changes in savings behavior. We experimentally test the impact of financial literacy training on clients of a branchless banking program that offers doorstep access to banking to low-income households. The intervention had significant impacts: total savings in the treatment group increased by 49% ($39) within a period of 1 year. The increase in savings is due in part to decreases in expenditures on temptation goods. These results suggest that financial education interventions can be successful in changing savings outcomes, although results may be very context specific.

Date: 2018
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