The Effect of Savings Accounts on Interpersonal Financial Relationships: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Kenya

Pascaline Dupas, Anthony Keats and Jonathan Robinson

Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz

Abstract: The welfare impact of expanding access to bank accounts depends on whether accountscrowd out pre-existing financial relationships, or whether private gains from accounts are shared within social networks. To study the effect of accounts on financial linkages, we provided free bank accounts to a random subset of 885 households. Across households, we document positive spillovers: treatment households become less reliant on grown children and siblingsliving outside their village, and become more supportive of neighbors and friends within their village. Within households, we randomized which spouse was offered an account and find no evidence of negative spillovers.

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; financial access; spillovers; social insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08-18
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Savings Accounts on Interpersonal Financial Relationships: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Kenya (2019)
Working Paper: The Effect of Savings Accounts on Interpersonal Financial Relationships: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Kenya (2015)
Working Paper: The Effect of Savings Accounts on Interpersonal Financial Relationships: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Kenya (2015)
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