We conducted a field experiment to test whether savings constraints prevent the self-employed from increasing the size of their businesses. We opened interest-free savings accounts in a village bank in rural Kenya for a randomly selected sample of poor daily income earners. Despite the fact that the bank charged substantial withdrawal fees, take-up and usage was high among women and the savings accounts had substantial, positive impacts on their productive investment levels and expenditures. These results imply that a substantial fraction of daily income earners face important savings constraints and have a demand for formal saving devices (even for those that offer negative de facto interest rates).
Type:
Paper
Date:
January 2009
Authors:
Pascaline Dupas, Jonathan Robinson
Country:
Kenya
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Savings
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Date:
January 2009
Authors:
Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Behavioral Economics, Savings
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Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Justine Hastings, Lydia Tejeda-Ashton
Country:
Mexico
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Financial Literacy
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Estimates the presence and importance of adverse selection and moral hazard in a consumer credit market using a randomized field experiment methodology.
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Type:
Brief
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Product Design
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Estimates the presence and importance of adverse selection and moral hazard in a consumer credit market using a randomized field experiment methodology.
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Type:
Paper
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Product Design
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Examines the effect commitment mechanisms can have in helping an individual quit smoking.
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Type:
Brief
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
Philippines
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Commitment Devices
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Examines the effect commitment mechanisms can have in helping an individual quit smoking.
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Type:
Paper
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
Philippines
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Commitment Devices
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This paper explores the implications of voluntary reporting on knowledge of microfinance, using specific data from the MixMarket and the Microcredit Summit. The authors find that while both organizations aspire to provide a broad, global set of data, different trends in the reported data influence our analyses and lead to different conclusions depending on the dataset used.
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Type:
Paper
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Bauchet, Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Investment and Regulation
Themes:
Big Picture
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Assessing the effects of access to credit on mental health.
Type:
Paper
Date:
December 2008
Authors:
Lia CH Fernald, Rita Hamad, Dean Karlan, Emily J Ozer, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Behavioral Economics, Consumer Protection
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Analyzes the financial data of 245 microfinance institutions to examine the effect of regulation on the profitability and outreach of these institutions.
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Type:
Brief
Date:
October 2008
Authors:
Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Investment and Regulation
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
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Analyzes the financial data of 245 microfinance institutions to examine the effect of regulation on the profitability and outreach of these institutions.
Access the research brief here.
Type:
Paper
Date:
October 2008
Authors:
Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Investment and Regulation
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
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Type:
Paper
Date:
October 2008
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Markus Mobius, Tanya Rosenblat, Adam Szeidl
Country:
Peru
Research Areas:
Reimagining Financial Access, Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Behavioral Economics
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Type:
Paper
Date:
September 2008
Authors:
Xavier Giné, Dean Yang
Country:
Malawi
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Credit, Insurance, Technology Adoption
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Foreword to The Pledge: ASA, Peasant Politics, and Microfinance in the Development of Bangladesh, by Stuart Rutherford
Type:
Brief
Date:
August 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Bangladesh
Research Areas:
Reimagining Financial Access
Themes:
Big Picture
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Examines claims about returns to capital earned by poor households.
Type:
Framing Note
Date:
May 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Interest Rates, Product Design
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Describes the challenges of providing reliable banking services to the poorest customers in a commercially viable way.
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Type:
Brief
Date:
May 2008
Authors:
Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Reimagining Financial Access, Investment and Regulation
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
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Explains the design and results from a field experiment in South Africa that explored the effect of psychological features such as presentation changes on loan take-up.
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Type:
Brief
Date:
May 2008
Authors:
Marianne Bertrand, Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Credit, Marketing
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Explains the design and results from a field experiment in South Africa that explored the effect of psychological features such as presentation changes on loan take-up.
Access the research brief here.
Type:
Paper
Date:
May 2008
Authors:
Marianne Bertrand, Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Credit, Marketing
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Type:
Paper
Date:
April 2008
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jinyong Hahn, Keisuke Hi
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Provides an list of academic and non-academic papers on the demand for and impact of savings mechanisms in developing countries.
Type:
Framing Note
Date:
April 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Reimagining Financial Access
Themes:
Savings
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Highlighted Publications
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Type:
Framing Note
Date:
August 2010
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Framing Note
Date:
October 2009
Authors:
Aparna Dalal, Jonathan Morduch, Alberto Chaia, Tony Goland, Maria Jose Gonzalez, Robert Schiff
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Type:
Paper
Date:
June 2009
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Book
Date:
May 2009
Authors:
Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven
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Type:
Paper
Date:
February 2009
Authors:
Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Paper
Date:
January 2009
Authors:
David McKenzie, Suresh de Mel, Christopher Woodruff
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Type:
Paper
Date:
October 2008
Authors:
Robert Cull, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Framing Note
Date:
May 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Framing Note
Date:
April 2008
Authors:
Jonathan Morduch
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Type:
Paper
Date:
January 2008
Authors:
Nava Ashraf, Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan
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Type:
Paper
Date:
November 2006
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Martin Valdivia
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