Financial exclusion in developed countries: a field experiment among migrants and low-income people in Italy

Giorgia Barboni, Alessandra Cassar and Timothée Demont

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Abstract: We designed an experiment to estimate the socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics associated with financial exclusion in a developed economy and the demand for savings products progressively trading-off flexibility for commitment. Our sample includes people in Italy living below the poverty line, stratified by migration status. Despite a large bank branch penetration in the study area, we find a high rate of financial exclusion, with households below the sample median income being unbanked at twice the rate of those above (30% vs. 15%), a difference that is especially significant for migrants. Financial exclusion is associated with poverty and social exclusion, as measured by unemployment, low food consumption, and little help from personal networks. Despite a high-declared willingness to open new accounts and a strong interest in commitment products following a financial education training seminar, actual uptake in the year to follow remains low, suggesting that demand-driven factors besides knowledge hamper access to formal financial services, namely incomes that are perceived too low to make accounts worthwhile. Yet, migrants, especially if non-Muslim, appear more willing to become financially included than non-migrants, suggesting that there are gains to be made by targeting minorities.

Keywords: field experiment; financial exclusion; savings; migrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, 2017, 1 (2), pp.39 - 49

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Journal Article: Financial exclusion in developed countries: a field experiment among migrants and low-income people in Italy (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01612054

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