Learning the Impact of Financial Education When Take-Up Is Low
Financial education programs are increasingly offered by governments, nonprofits, and financial institutions. However, voluntary participation rates in such programs are often very low, posing a severe challenge for randomized experiments attemptin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/366421510084807543/Learning-the-impact-of-financial-education-when-take-up-is-low http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28857 |
| Summary: | Financial education programs are
increasingly offered by governments, nonprofits, and
financial institutions. However, voluntary participation
rates in such programs are often very low, posing a severe
challenge for randomized experiments attempting to measure
their impact. This study uses a large experiment on more
than 100,000 credit card clients in Mexico. The study shows
how the richness of financial data allows combining
nonexperimental methods with the experiment to yield
credible measures of impact, even with take-up rates below 1
percent. The findings show that a financial education
workshop and personalized coaching result in a higher
likelihood of paying credit cards on time, and of making
more than the minimum payment, but do not reduce spending,
resulting in higher profitability for the bank. |
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