Measuring Household Usage of Financial Services : Does it Matter How or Whom You Ask?
In recent years, the number of surveys of access to and use of financial services has multiplied, but little is known about whether the data generated are comparable across countries, or within the same country over time. This paper reports results...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090910160126 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4240 |
| Summary: | In recent years, the number of surveys
of access to and use of financial services has multiplied,
but little is known about whether the data generated are
comparable across countries, or within the same country over
time. This paper reports results from a randomized
experiment in Ghana to test whether the identity of the
respondent and the inclusion of product-specific cues in
questions affect the reported rates of household usage of
financial services. The analysis shows that rates of
household usage are almost identical when the head reports
on behalf of the household and when the rate is tabulated
from a full enumeration of household use. Randomly selected
informants (i.e., non-heads of the household) provide a less
complete summary of household use of financial services than
the other two methods. The findings also show that for
credit from formal institutions, informal sources of
savings, and insurance, usage rates are higher when
questions are asked about specific financial products rather
than about the respondent s dealings with types of financial
institutions. In short, who is asked the questions and the
form in which they are asked both matter. |
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