Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal

This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of access to agent banking. Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact at a banking agent or a branch of a financial institution. Compared with individuals who were...

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Main Authors: Buri, Sinja, Cull, Robert, Gine, Xavier, Harten, Sven, Heitmann, Soren
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/470981524164012687/Banking-with-agents-experimental-evidence-from-Senegal
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29719
id okr-10986-29719
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-297192021-06-08T14:42:45Z Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal Buri, Sinja Cull, Robert Gine, Xavier Harten, Sven Heitmann, Soren TRANSACTION COSTS FIELD EXPERIMENT RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS AGENT BANKING PRIVACY This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of access to agent banking. Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact at a banking agent or a branch of a financial institution. Compared with individuals who were sent to the branch, individuals sent to an agent increased the number of transactions and incurred lower transaction costs with the agent. These transactions are, however, only half as large as those made at the branch because branch tellers are less likely to share information about clients with others. Banking with agents thus entails a trade-off between lower transaction costs and lack of privacy. 2018-04-20T18:52:18Z 2018-04-20T18:52:18Z 2018-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/470981524164012687/Banking-with-agents-experimental-evidence-from-Senegal http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29719 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8417 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Senegal
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TRANSACTION COSTS
FIELD EXPERIMENT
RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS
AGENT BANKING
PRIVACY
spellingShingle TRANSACTION COSTS
FIELD EXPERIMENT
RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS
AGENT BANKING
PRIVACY
Buri, Sinja
Cull, Robert
Gine, Xavier
Harten, Sven
Heitmann, Soren
Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
geographic_facet Africa
Senegal
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8417
description This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of access to agent banking. Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact at a banking agent or a branch of a financial institution. Compared with individuals who were sent to the branch, individuals sent to an agent increased the number of transactions and incurred lower transaction costs with the agent. These transactions are, however, only half as large as those made at the branch because branch tellers are less likely to share information about clients with others. Banking with agents thus entails a trade-off between lower transaction costs and lack of privacy.
format Working Paper
author Buri, Sinja
Cull, Robert
Gine, Xavier
Harten, Sven
Heitmann, Soren
author_facet Buri, Sinja
Cull, Robert
Gine, Xavier
Harten, Sven
Heitmann, Soren
author_sort Buri, Sinja
title Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
title_short Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
title_full Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
title_fullStr Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
title_full_unstemmed Banking with Agents : Experimental Evidence from Senegal
title_sort banking with agents : experimental evidence from senegal
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/470981524164012687/Banking-with-agents-experimental-evidence-from-Senegal
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29719
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