Banking the poor via savings accounts: Evidence from a field experiment

Why Do Poor People Co-Hold Debt and Liquid Savings?

“…Other authors (Prina, 2015;Kast & Pomeranz, 2014) show that the poor may value savings account for precautionary purposes. Precisely, formal savings accounts hedge risks that cannot be shared interpersonally, and thus complement pre-existing sharing arrangements (Dizon et al, 2015;Dupas et al, 2015).…”

How conditional cash transfers work

“…Furthermore, there is evidence that poor households with access to health savings accounts are better prepared to afford medical care in a health emergency (Dupas and Robinson, 2013). Evidence also indicates that improving access to secure savings mechanisms increases spending on education (Prina, 2015), and financial inclusion helps increase women's decision-making power with regard to household assets (Ashraf, Karlan and Yin, 2010). Specifically regarding CCTs, there is recent evidence that making payments through electronic benefits cards -regardless of whether they are linked to an account or not-has the effect of promoting savings and reducing spending on goods such as alcohol, tobacco and sugar (Bachas et al, 2016).…”

Programas de transferencias monetarias condicionadas e inclusión financiera

“…Silvia Prina (2015) aplicó un experimento en el que dio acceso a cuentas bancarias sin costo a mujeres cabeza de hogar en Nepal. Del total de mujeres a las que se les ofreció la posibilidad de abrir una cuenta de ahorro, el 84% abrió una y el 80% utilizó la cuenta de manera activa realizando al menos dos depósitos durante el primer año.…”