Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10689
Authors: Pascaline Dupas; Anthony Keats; Jonathan Robinson
Abstract: The welfare impact of expanding access to bank accounts depends on whether accounts crowd 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. Within households, we randomized which spouse was offered an account and find no evidence of negative spillovers to spouses. Across households, we document positive spillovers: treatment households become less reliant on grown children and siblings living outside their village, and become more supportive of neighbors and friends within their village.
Keywords: financial access; social insurance; spillovers
JEL Codes: C93; D14; G21; O16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| providing savings accounts to treatment households (D14) | reduction in reliance on remittance-type relationships (F24) |
| providing savings accounts to treatment households (D14) | increase in contributions to give-and-take relationships within the village (D64) |
| providing savings accounts to treatment households (D14) | no negative effects on intrahousehold transfers or private expenditures (D19) |