Authors
Pascaline Dupas, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Robinson, Diego Ubfal
Publication date
2018/4/1
Journal
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Volume
10
Issue
2
Pages
257-297
Publisher
American Economic Association
Description
We experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17, 10, and 3 percent of treatment individuals made five or more deposits, respectively. Average monthly deposits in treatment accounts were sizable among users, corresponding to the seventy-ninth, ninety-first, and ninety-sixth percentiles of baseline savings. Survey data show no discernible intention-to-treat effects on savings or any downstream outcomes, though we cannot reject large effect sizes for active users. Results suggest that policies merely focused on expanding access to basic accounts are unlikely to improve welfare noticeably on average. (JEL D14, G21, O12, O16)
Total citations
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Scholar articles
P Dupas, D Karlan, J Robinson, D Ubfal - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2018