Banking for Boomers – A Field Experiment on Technology Adoption in Financial Services

Katharina Hartinger (), Erik Sarrazin () and David Streich ()
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Katharina Hartinger: Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany
Erik Sarrazin: Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany
David Streich: Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

No 2505, Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Abstract: Digitalization in banking is leaving elderly clients at risk of losing access to financial services, but little is known about technology adoption at an advanced age. Using data from more than 27,000 elderly clients of a large German savings bank, we evaluate the inclusiveness and effectiveness of training interventions to foster internet banking adoption. We find that training take-up is low (2% initial response rate) among this group of non-adopters. Yet, training is highly effective conditional on participation: treatment completion is associated with an increase in internet banking set-up by 25 percentage points. In terms of sustainable usage, the share of online transactions increases by 13 percentage points and remains elevated four months later. To address selection into treatment, we use matched control groups and conduct extensive placebo analyses that corroborate a causal interpretation of a large share of the treatment effect. Among participants, treatment effects do not differ by socio-economic status but are larger for women and those not in charge of household finances. Surveying a broader sample of elderly non-adopters, we find that more than two-thirds display persistent reluctance towards internet banking adoption, and that this reluctance is not easily overcome through subtle changes in the framing of training invitations.

Keywords: technology adoption; internet banking; financial inclusion; digitalization; non-cognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D12 D91 G21 I21 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2025-06-17, Revised 2025-03-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-fle, nep-ict, nep-lma and nep-pay
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