What are the headwaters of formal savings? Experimental evidence from Sri Lanka

Michael Callen, Suresh De Mel, Craig McIntosh and Christopher Woodruff

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The world's poor are seeing a rapid expansion in access to formal savings accounts. What is the source of savings when households are connected to a formal account? We combine a high-frequency panel survey spanning two and a half years with an experiment in which a Sri Lankan bank used mobile Point-of-Service (POS) terminals to collect deposits directly from households each week. We find that the headwaters of formal savings lie in sacrificed leisure time: households work more, and improved savings options generate an increase in labour effort in both self-employment and in the wage market. The results suggest that the labour allocation channel is an important mechanism linking savings opportunities to income.

Keywords: savings; intertemporal labour supply; high-frequency surveys; household decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G21 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2019-11-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published in Review of Economic Studies, 1, November, 2019, 86(6), pp. 2491 - 2529. ISSN: 0034-6527

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/103022/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: What Are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2019)
Working Paper: What Are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2016)
Working Paper: What Are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2015)
Working Paper: What are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2014)
Working Paper: What are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2014)
Working Paper: What are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:103022

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