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

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  • Dupas, Pascaline
  • Keats, Anthony
  • Robinson, Jonathan

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.

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  • Dupas, Pascaline & Keats, Anthony & Robinson, Jonathan, 2016. "The Effect of Savings Accounts on Interpersonal Financial Relationships: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural Kenya," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3524t5vb, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt3524t5vb
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    Cited by:

    1. Pascaline Dupas & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Robinson & Diego Ubfal, 2018. "Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from Three Countries," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 257-297, April.
    2. Catia Batista & Sandra Sequeira & Pedro C. Vicente, 2022. "Closing the Gender Profit Gap?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8553-8567, December.
    3. Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & Narayan Das & Selim Gulesci & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman, 2017. "Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 132(2), pages 811-870.
    4. Pascaline Dupas & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Robinson & Diego Ubfal, 2018. "Banking the Unbanked? Evidence from Three Countries," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 257-297, April.
    5. Aker, Jenny C. & Sawyer, Melita & Goldstein, Markus & O'Sullivan, Michael & McConnell, Margaret, 2020. "Just a bit of cushion: The role of a simple savings device in meeting planned and unplanned expenses in rural Niger," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Shilpa Aggarwal & Valentina Brailovskaya & Jonathan Robinson, 2023. "Saving for Multiple Financial Needs: Evidence from Lockboxes and Mobile Money in Malawi," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 833-851, July.
    7. Carolina Laureti, 2017. "Why do Poor People Co-hold Debt and Liquid Savings?," Working Papers CEB 17-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Galdo, Jose C., 2021. "Using Bank Savings Product Design for Empowering Women and Agricultural Development," IZA Discussion Papers 14523, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Vincent Somville & Lore Vandewalle, 2017. "Access to Formal Banking and Household Finances: Experimental Evidence from India," CMI Working Papers 1, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    10. Mayra Buvinic & Megan O’Donnell, 2017. "Gender Matters in Economic Empowerment Interventions: A Research Review - Working Paper 456," Working Papers 456, Center for Global Development.
    11. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    12. Costas Meghir & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Ahmed Corina Mommaerts & Ahmed Melanie Morten, 2019. "Migration and Informal Insurance," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2185, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    13. Grigoriadis, Theocharis, 2017. "Religion, administration & public goods: Experimental evidence from Russia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 42-60.
    14. Murphy, David M.A., 2023. "Sobriety, social capital, and village network structures," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    15. Mayra Buvinic & Megan O’Donnell, 2017. "Gender Matters in Economic Empowerment Interventions: A Research Review," Working Papers id:11926, eSocialSciences.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social and Behavioral Sciences; financial access; spillovers; social insurance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

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