Commitment Savings Accounts and Quitting Smoking in the Philippines

Can financial incentives work to help people quit smoking?  The CARES (Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking) Program, creates a commitment contract that provides financial incentives for smokers who wish to quit smoking. Smokers offered the product were more likely to be smoke-free 6 and 12 months afterwards.

 
Policy Issue: 

Despite detrimental effects, people throughout the world habitually engage in damaging or inefficient habits such as smoking, eating poorly, or failing to save money. Experts believe that this is because people’s preferences change over time: in the long-run an individual may wish to quit smoking, for example, but in the moment their preference for a cigarette may outweigh their desire to quit. Such behavior, known as time inconsistent preferences, may help to explain why people make inefficient choices that result in poor health or a lack of financial cushioning. Some researchers theorize that habits that have negative long-term effects can be discouraged by giving people commitment devices: contracts which constrain their future behavior, and may exact a financial penalty if they revert to bad habits. 

 
Context of the Evaluation: 

Despite its serious health effects, smoking is extremely commonplace in the Philippines: in 2009, 28.3 percent of Filipinos aged 15 years or older were current smokers, and 22.5 percent smoked on a daily basis. Smoking is also a considerable expense, with the average surveyed smoker spending approximately 100 pesos (US$2) per week on cigarettes, nearly 15 percent of their monthly income. Even though it is a common behavior, 72 percent of survey respondents reported that they wanted to stop smoking at some point in their life, and nearly 45 percent indicated that they had tried to stop smoking within the last year. Survey responses suggest that their lack of success may be due to time inconsistent preferences: though 72 percent reported that they wanted to stop smoking at some point, only about 18 percent of people said that they wanted to stop smoking now. 

 
Details of the Intervention: 

Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking (“CARES”) is a voluntary commitment savings program. The basic design of the product allows a smoker to deposit a self-selected amount of his own money that will be forfeited unless he passes a biochemical test of smoking cessation. To enroll people in the CARES program, the Green Bank of Caraga identified regular smokers off the street and asked them if they wanted to participate in a short survey on smoking. All subjects received an informational pamphlet on the dangers of smoking, and a tip sheet on how to quit. After completing this baseline survey, subjects were randomly assigned to receive one of four offers:

  1. CARES with deposit collection: A minimum balance of 50 pesos (about US$1) was required to open a CARES account, and individuals were encouraged by marketers to deposit the money they would normally spend on cigarettes into this account each week. This group also received weekly visits from deposit collectors, saving them the weekly trip to the bank. All CARES clients were able to deposit into, but not to withdraw from these accounts, and the accounts yielded no interest, to discourage non-smokers people from using them as a substitute for normal savings accounts. 
  2. CARES without deposit collection: Same as above, except these clients had to go to a bank branch themselves to make deposits.
  3. Cue Cards: These individuals got to choose from among four wallet-sized cards depicting negative health consequences of smoking: premature babies, bad teeth, black lung, or a child hooked up to a respirator. They were encouraged by the marketers to keep them in a prominent location. 
  4. Comparison Group: These individuals received no additional information. 

Six months after the baseline survey, all survey respondents took a urine test to determine if they were still smoking. Individuals in the CARES treatment groups would receive their entire balance back if they passed the test, but would forfeit it if they failed or refused to take the test. Non-clients (those assigned to the cues and comparison groups) were paid 30 pesos (US$0.60) for taking the six-month test, and all respondents were paid 30 pesos for taking another test 12 months after the baseline. 

 
Results and Policy Lessons: 

In total, about 11 percent of individuals who were offered CARES signed a contract. Individuals who reported wanting to quit, who were optimistic about quitting, and who already exhibited strategic behavior to manage their cravings (i.e. avoiding situations that made them want to smoke) were more likely to sign a contract. On the other hand, individuals who reported wanting to quite more than a year in the future, and who showed signs of being heavy smokers were less likely to sign a contract. Ninety percent of CARES clients opened with the minimum amount of 50 pesos, and 80 percent made additional contributions. The average client contributed about every two weeks, and after six months had a final balance of around 553 pesos, equal to approximately six months’ worth of cigarette spending.

Individuals who were offered a CARES contract were 3.3 to 5.8 percentage points more likely to pass a urine test for nicotine after six months than those in the comparison group, and were 3.4 to 5.7 percentage points more likely to pass after 12 months—a substantial effect considering that only 8.9 to 14.7 percent of comparison individuals passed the test. This represents an over 35 percent increase in the likelihood of smoking cessation compared to baseline.  However, despite these large treatment effects, a surprisingly large proportion (66 percent) of smokers who voluntarily committed to CARES ended up failing to quit. Still, the results of the CARES program were far above the reductions in smoking associated with the cue card treatment, which had no effect on smoking cessation: though over 99 percent of clients offered the cue cards accepted them, fewer than half remembered the cards and knew where they had put them one year later, and only about 5 percent reported still using them to manage cravings. However, it is still not known how much of the CARES treatment effect was due to the financial commitment that all clients made, and how much was due to the frequent contact that some clients had with deposit collectors. 

 

Selected Media Coverage:
Sticking to It - Project Syndicate
 
Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Deposit Collectors in the Philippines

 

Policy Issue: 

In the last three decades, microfinance has generated worldwide enthusiasm as an innovation in anti-poverty policy by bringing formal financial services to the poor. But relatively little is known about the asset side of microfinance services – microsavings. Deposit-collection services, regular pickup of cash with unrestricted rights to withdraw it later, are a popular tool among both microfinance lenders and clients across the globe. Savings programs provide banks with a mechanism to learn more about potential lending clients, and for clients, the reward of a future loan may be incentive enough to encourage them to save regularly via the service. A high demand for formal savings mechanisms also implies that in-home solutions, such as hiding money in a mattress, are not satisfactory to people. But, it is yet unclear whether deposit-collection services will actually be utilized to generate higher savings rates than the status quo. 

 

Context of the Evaluation: 

Over the past several decades, savings in the Philippines has largely stagnated. In the 1960s, domestic savings rate was over 20 percent of GDP, making it one of the highest in Asia. At present, the country's savings rate hovers between 12 and 15 percent - far below the level of savings for most East Asian countries, which ranges from 25 to 30 percent. However, there is evidence that poor and low-income Filipinos do save, or at least have the capacity to do so, and informal savings mechanisms appear to be widespread throughout the country. In an effort to provide formal savings options to their microfinance clients, the well-established Green Bank of Caraga developed a deposit collection service. Sampled bank clients represent a wide cross-section of the Philippines, including individuals from broad economic and educational backgrounds.

 
Details of the Intervention: 

Researchers evaluated the impact on savings balances and borrowing behavior from a deposit-collecting program offered by the Green Bank of Caraga. To gain insight into the mechanisms that might cause increases in savings rates, and the type of individuals who demand this specialized savings service, researchers investigated the determinants of take-up.

Green Bank first identified ten barangays (small political and community units) that were reasonably accessible and had a significant enough number of existing clients to warrant sending an employee into the area. These barangays were located around Butuan City in northern Mindanao, where the head office of the Green Bank is located. Green Bank marketing representatives were able to reach 137 existing clients' homes in five randomly selected treatment barangays. A door-to-door deposit-collector service was offered, which would collect funds to be deposited at the local bank. The cost of the service was 4 pesos per pickup, and clients could choose either a monthly or bi-weekly pickup schedule. If clients chose to participate, they committed to pay for the pick-up service regardless of whether they submitted a deposit, although this was not always enforced. The remaining five barangays were offered no collection services, serving as the comparison. In both treatment and control barangays, clients could withdraw their funds at any time. 

 

Results and Policy Lessons: 

Take-Up Determinants: Distance to the bank branch, a measure of the transaction cost that a client incurs by depositing money normally, was a strong determinant of take-up. Each additional 10 kilometers a client had to travel to make a deposit increased the probability that they would enroll in the deposit collection service by 6 percentage points. Additionally, married women were more likely to take up the service relative to single women - being married increased the probability that a woman would take-up the service by about 13 percent. However, married men were no more likely than single men to take up the service. The gender difference suggests that intra-household decision making factors play a strong role in the take-up of deposit-collection services.

Impact on Take-Up: The deposit-collection service resulted in a substantial increase in savings for those offered the service. Of the 137 clients offered the service, 28 percent took up the deposit collection. Of those 38 individuals, 35 chose monthly service, though 18 never deposited money through the collectors during the 10-month study period. Despite the wide variance in the impact on savings of the deposit-collection, on average, the impact was positive relative to savings changes of clients in the comparison barangays. The deposit-collection service increased savings by about 25 percent after 10 months. The average person made 3.85 deposits over the 10 month period, and the average deposit amounted to 497 pesos. Overall, after 10 months treatment clients saved 228 pesos more than the comparison. These results could be attributed to decreased transaction costs, facilitating follow through on financial planning and providing a public commitment device for limiting spending, among other explanations. Further, there was a slight decrease in borrowing for those clients offered the deposit-collection service, possibly due to the increase in assets. 

1 Lavado, Rouselle F., "Effects of Pension Payments on Savings in the Philippines," International Graduate Student Conference Series, East-West Center. Nov 23, 2006. http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/IGSCwp023.pdf (Accessed November 4, 2009)

Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin

Commitment Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Mexico

Policy Issue:

By the year 2000, individuals living outside their country of birth had grown to nearly 3% of the world’s population, reaching a total 175 million people.[i] The money many of these migrants send home, remittances, is an important but relatively poorly understood type of international financial flow. Currently, the use of savings services is low among many remittance receivers. Increasing savings has the possibility to mitigate the negative impacts of unforeseen circumstances, such as medical emergencies or economic hardship.

Context of the Evaluation: 

In Mexico, the financial intermediary Caja Nacional del Sureste (CNS) observed that it was transferring a large amount of remittances to their clients but that very little savings was captured from this flow of money. At the start of the study, only 38 percent of the sample of remittance receivers had a savings account at the Caja, and only about one half of these clients had actually saved any portion of their remittance.

 
Details of the Intervention: 

In an effort to increase savings among remittance receivers, at the onset of the project, CNS offered a saving account called “Tu Futuro Seguro” (TFS), or “Your Secure Future,” to any remittance receivers in its four branches. The account paid 7 percent annually, compounded every month, with no restrictions on withdrawals or deposits. It had no starting fees but required the client to sign a non-binding agreement to save a predetermined amount of money for every remittance received. The client decided that amount, although CNS suggested US$20, US$50, or US$100, The client could also make deposits from any other source of income. As the name suggests, the account was marketed to clients as an account to save for emergencies, future economic shocks, and future illnesses. Though clients could withdraw funds, they were encouraged to only use the money only for an emergency purpose.  

The total sample of 783 remittance receivers were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the comparison group. For clients assigned to the treatment group, the system automatically informed CNS staff to offer TFS product. During their subsequent visits, CNS staff continued to offer the product until clients opened the account. For those who were assigned to the comparison group, CNS staff followed routine process, and did not offer the TFS product.

There were two sources of data to inform the study. The baseline survey, which was administered when clients first arrived at the branch, included questions on poverty, children’s attendance in school and information about remittances (who makes decision about remittances, relationship with the sender, and savings level). Administrative data, including account information such as daily transaction amount, monthly balance, basic demographic information, date to join as a member, purpose of the transaction, remittance amounts, committed saving amount, etc, was also collected from the CNS information system.

Results and Policy Lessons: 

Take-up of TFS Accounts: Among the 386 remittance beneficiaries who were randomly assigned to receive the TFS offer, 101 (26.17 percent) opened a savings account. Take-up of TFS was higher among those who live below poverty line. Typically, these people were more likely to be female, with fewer years of education and were more likely to speak indigenous language.

Impact on Savings: The product did not appear to have any significant impact on savings, measured by monthly deposits, monthly withdrawals, and monthly net deposits. 

The failure to find significant treatment effects may be partly because of the difficulties encountered during implementation. Upon going to the bank to receive one’s remittance, a proportion was supposed to be set aside by default unless the client asks otherwise. However, this is not what happened in reality. Also, the total sample frame was lower than expected, thus lowering the precision of the results. The sample frame was determined by approaching individuals as they came to CNS to receive a remittance, but fewer individuals came forward than was expected in the study intake time period. 

 

[i]Ashraf, Nava, Diego Aycinena, Claudia Martinez and Dean Yang. “Remittances and the Problem of Control: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador,” August 2009.

Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan

Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines

We evaluate a unique "commitment" savings account, in which individuals restrict their right to withdraw funds until they have reached a self-specified goal. Clients are also given the option to automate transfers from a primary account into the commitment savings account, and given the option of buying a lockbox to store their money, with only the bank possessing a key. The account helped people save more after one year, and increased decision making power for women in the household.

 
Policy Issue: 

A growing literature on intra-household bargaining finds that increases in female share of income, regardless of any other changes, can provide women with more power within the household. This can lead to an allocation of resources that better reflect preferences of women, including education, housing, and nutrition for children. Many development interventions have thus focused on transferring income as a way of promoting empowerment, and argue that these empowerment mechanisms justify increased attention and financing to microfinance institutions (MFIs), perhaps including subsidies. However, there is little rigorous evidence to confirm that expanding financial access and usage can promote female empowerment.

 
Context of the Evaluation: 

Over the past several decades, savings in the Philippines has largely stagnated. In the 1960s, the domestic savings rate was over 20 percent of GDP in the Philippines, making it one of the highest in Asia. At present, the country’s savings rate hovers between 12 and 15 percent – far below the level of savings for most East Asian countries, which ranges from 25 to 30 percent.  Low savings are believed to contribute to the country’s slow economic growth compared to the rest of the region. Past studies have led to a belief that Filipinos are consumption-oriented, with little desire or capacity to save. Filipinos are believed to use credit primarily for daily needs, and bankers report that salary deposits are often withdrawn within the same day. However, there is evidence to suggest poor and low-income Filipinos do save, or at least have the capacity to do so, as informal savings mechanisms appear to be widespread throughout the country.

 
Details of the Intervention: 

The Green Bank of Caraga, along with researchers, designed and implemented a commitment savings product called a SEED (Save, Earn, Enjoy Deposits) account. The SEED account provides individuals with a commitment to restrict access to their savings, thus potentially helping with either self-control or family-control issues. Each individual defines either a goal date or amount, and is subsequently unable to withdraw from the account until the goal is reached. Other than providing a possible commitment savings device, no further benefit accrued to individuals with this account: the interest rate paid on the SEED account is identical to the interest paid on a normal savings account (4 percent per annum).

Researchers trained a team of marketers hired by the partnering bank to visit the homes or businesses of existing bank clients in the commitment-treatment group, to stress the importance of savings to them. This process included eliciting the clients’ motivations for savings, and emphasizing to the client that even small amounts of saving make a difference; marketers then offered them the SEED product. Another group of individuals (the marketing-treatment group) received the exact same marketing script, but was not expressly offered the SEED product. 

The field experiment sample consists of 1,777 Green Bank clients who have savings accounts in one of two bank branches in the greater Butuan City area, randomly selected for the baseline interview. A second randomization assigned these individuals to three groups: commitment-treatment (T), marketing-treatment (M), and comparison (C) groups. One-half the sample was assigned to T, and a quarter of the sample was assigned to each of groups M and C.

After one year, a follow-up survey was conducted to assess (1) inventory of assets (to measure whether the impact on savings represented a net increase in savings or merely a crowd-out of other assets); (2) impact on household decision making and savings attitudes; and (3) impact on economic decisions, such as purchase of durable goods, health and consumption.

 
Results and Policy Lessons: 

Savings Product Take-up: Twenty eight percent of those who were explicitly offered the SEED product opened an account. After twelve months, about half the clients had deposited money into their account beyond the initial opening deposit, and one third regularly made deposits. It appears that SEED helped about 10 percent of the treatment group to save more.

Impact on Savings Balances: For the commitment savings group, average savings balance increased by 42 percent after six months and by 82 percent after one year. This increase in savings also does not appear to crowd out savings held outside of the participating bank. 

Household Decision Making Power: The SEED product leads to more decision making power for women in the household, and likewise an increase in purchases of female-oriented durable goods. The outcome was measured as a decision-making indicator, calculated as the average of responses across nine decision categories (expensive purchases, assistance given to family members, recreational use, etc). Findings indicate that assignment to the treatment group leads to between 0.14 and 0.25 standard deviation increase in a decision making index. 

Self-Perception of Savings Behavior: Results also indicate that the SEED product leads women who report themselves as favoring present consumption over future consumption in a baseline survey to self-report being a disciplined saver in the follow-up survey. The results here suggest that commitment features, in particular loss of liquidity combined with sole control of the account, are particularly appealing to people with greater self-control and have positive impacts on female decision-making power.

1  Lavado, Rouselle F., “Effects of Pension Payments on Savings in the Philippines,” International Graduate Student Conference Series, East-West Center. Nov 23, 2006. http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/IGSCwp023.pdf (Accessed November 4, 2009)

 

Selected Media Coverage:
Sticking to It - Project Syndicate
Rationalizing Resolutions - Business Spectator
 
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin

Increasing Savings and Reducing Reliance on Credit Card Debt for Low-Income Individuals in Washington DC

This project will evaluate the impact of commitment contracts and reminder messaging on savings behaviors among low- and medium-income credit union members in Washington DC.  Traditional financial products which dominate the consumer finance market tend to operate under the assumption that consumers act in a rational manner and fail to take into account cognitive biases which can impede the realization of financial goals. Here we test a savings product that includes two features designed to overcome these biases. A built-in commitment contract attempts to encourage consumers to forego present expenditures in lieu of future payoffs.  Regular messaging attempts to overcome limited attention, which may result in an inability to stick to a budget or savings plan.

Dean Karlan, Eldar Shafir, Jonathan Zinman

Using Behavioral Economics to Help Households Reduce Debt

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of innovative decision-making devices based on lessons from behavioral economics and psychology.  Financial outcomes in retirement are the product of a lifetime of decisions.  For many households, the most important financial decisions involve borrowing, not saving.  Rather than the rational creatures that standard economic models of behavior assume, humans are subject to numerous biases that may impede our abilities to make good choices.  This project will use successes from United States and developing countries to implement behaviorally-motivated interventions for helping U.S. consumers reduce their reliance on credit card debt and increase savings, with an eye towards the importance of early retirement planning. 

Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Alarm Boxes: Combining Commitment and Reminders

Policy Issue: 

In addition to the lack of banking infrastructure, many other constraints limit the availability and effectiveness of savings services for the poor. There has been very little research to map the demand for services so that products can be designed with clients’ needs and cash-flow in mind. These constraints in the supply and demand for savings service point to the need for specialized market research and product development efforts.  Efforts to unveil the actual needs and perceptions of low-income clients to better devise products and incentives for them may result in more rigorous savings behavior.  

The proposed intervention is based on the idea that individuals do not foresee events in the future and thus do not save for those unexpected needs in the present. Furthermore, individuals lack a safe place to save money temporarily and require a means to curb impulsivity. As a result, mechanisms to remind clients in a frequent and timely manner to save now, such as programmed alarms and lockboxes that do not allow for easy access to these savings, may improve the ability of clients to take future needs into account, stall unnecessary consumption in the present, and consequently change savings behavior.

 
Context of the Evaluation: 

Although the gross domestic savings rate in Bolivia in 2009 averaged about 20 percent of the country's GDP, on par with its neighbors (Peru at 26 percent and Ecuador at 21 percent), Bolivia’s savings rate has been historically much lower than those of other countries in Latin America, and access to savings services is severely constrained among the poor.1 Given the predominance of microfinance institutions (MFI) in the financial services sector in Bolivia, the responsibility of generating savings products and services for the poor generally falls on these institutions. Increasingly, due to the commercialization of the sector in Bolivia, the capturing of savings has become a major driving force behind MFI sustainability and growth.

Ecofuturo is a for-profit Bolivian microfinance institution that operates in many regions of Bolivia. Ecofuturo offers an array of individual credit, insurance, and savings products. These savings products range from basic non-programmed accounts to more complex commitment accounts that require the client to meet deposit quotas in order to qualify for rewards, such as higher interest rates. Working with Ecofuturo, IPA developed an innovative lockbox with a daily alarm that can only be turned off by depositing money. The lockbox acts as a psychological barrier to impulsivity by requiring its owner to visit the local bank branch where designated bank staff keep the key. By incorporating the use of alarms to the already familiar concept of lockboxes (i.e. piggy banks), IPA will test the impact of a technology that is both simple and cost-effective. The alarm acts like a reminder, not unlike a text message reminder to a cell phone, but over a period of time could prove to be more cost-effective and relevant for those who do not have access to a cell phone.

 
Details of the Intervention: 

IPA first tested the alarm box with a small pilot sample with plans to launch the product to approximately 800 Ecofuturo clients to evaluate its impact on savings behavior. In total, IPA will work with 2400 existing savings account holders. Two-thirds of the clients will be randomly selected to get an offer of a lockbox, and of those clients, half will be offered boxes with alarms. The remaining group of clients will serve as a comparison group. The impact of an information wheel that clients can use to determine daily savings amounts required to ascertain a goal in a given time will also be assessed. Within each of the three groups (comparison, lockbox, lockbox with alarm), half of the clients will be randomly selected to receive the wheel. Savings rates and frequencies will be measured amongst treatment and comparison groups after approximately one year.

 
Results and Policy Lessons: 

Results forthcoming.

 

1 The World Bank Group. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDS.TOTL.ZS

Dean Karlan, Margaret McConnell, Jonathan Zinman

Informative vs. Persuasive Advertising of Savings Products

Policy Issue:

Many argue that increasing financial literacy among poor households would increase usage of financial products, and savings products in particular.  However, this theory raises an immediate question: if financial literacy increases take-up of savings products, why don’t banks and microfinance institutions include financial literacy materials in their advertising?   One explanation for this relative lack of “informational advertising” or use of financial literacy materials is that banks cannot capture all of the increase in savings product use from the advertising (i.e. there are spillovers).  The informative advertising may make customers more likely to use savings products in general from any firm, thus the bank conducting the marketing may not benefit.  Another method, referred to as “persuasive advertising” that tries to convince the customer that a particular firm is superior may be a more effective means of promoting a particular bank’s products.   This study assesses the impact of both informative and persuasive advertising to better understand the role of financial literacy in savings product take-up.

Context of the Evaluation:

This project takes place in Cagayan de Oro City, a sprawling city of more than 550,000 people in Northern Mindanao, Philippines.  Study areas are urban or peri-urban, including informal settlements with tenuous land rights and areas that are frequently affected by flooding.  The majority of respondents live below the poverty line, and, during the baseline, only half reported having a household member with salaried employment.  Common occupations in these areas include construction work, driving jeepneys, tricycles, or pedicabs, and operating small neighborhood stores or eateries.  Nearly half of the respondents surveyed reported never having saved with a formal financial institution, though a majority said they have saved at home, and some through informal savings mechanisms. At the time of the project launch, commitment savings accounts were available at both partner banks, Green Bank and First Valley Bank, but few respondents reported using the bank for any purpose.  Green Bank offers the SEED Commitment Savings Account, while First Valley Bank offers the Gihandom Savings Account. 

Description of Intervention:

This evaluation assesses the impact of two types of advertising campaigns on savings product take-up. First Valley Bank and Green Bank of Caraga hired teams of marketers to implement a new advertising campaign promoting the banks’ commitment savings products.

The target sample, households in 12 barangays close to both partner banks (within two regular-priced rides using standard local transportation, 14 pesos or approx. 30 US cents) were given a baseline survey. This survey captured information about basic demographics, work experience and income levels, poverty level (using the PPI), cognitive ability, thoughts on advertising, and previous experience with formal financial institutions and saving.   All households were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups or a comparison group.

Marketers from both banks distributed two types of fliers advertising the bank’s commitment savings product to households in the treatment groups. Informative fliers contained basic financial literacy information that highlighted the costs of borrowing versus saving, while persuasive fliers emphasized the quality and trustworthiness of a particular bank.  Each treatment group received one flier from each bank in a random order: both informative, both persuasive, or mixed (one informative and one persuasive or vice-versa).  All fliers were bright and colorful and had a map of the bank's location on the back and noted the four key features of the savings product: 2% interest rate , opening/minimum balance of 100 pesos, free lockbox for savings (paid for by IPA), and goal-setting feature (date or amount restrictions on withdrawal).  IPA worked with the banks to refine product terms and conditions and ensure equivalency on a number of key features, terms, and fees so that no significant variation existed between the two banks’ products.

A few weeks later, marketers from both banks returned to all households reached in the baseline, including comparison households, and offered to help open savings accounts.  To reduce the non-financial barriers to savings that respondents might face, marketers took ID photos for respondents and made copies of other documents required to open accounts.  Marketers also worked with respondents to help set a savings goal.  At the end of each day, marketers submitted completed application packets and initial deposits for processing by the bank.  When accounts had been processed, marketers returned to households to hand over lockboxes and passbooks and answer any additional question the clients may have had about their new accounts.  All households were visited by representatives from both banks in a random order to eliminate any first-mover effect.

Results and Policy Lessons:

Results forthcoming. 

Justine Hastings, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Using Encouragement to Overcome Psychological Barriers to Saving in Peru

This research examines whether bank marketing and communication tools can help individuals save more and, in particular, switch from informal savings vehicles to formal sector methods (e.g., a bank account). In conjunction with Caja Municipal de Ica (CMI), IPA examines various methods of product design, beyond the financial incentive, of encouraging clients to complete their savings commitment.

Policy Issue:

Microfinance has generated worldwide enthusiasm as a possible strategy to help people living in poverty get the resources they need to start a business, receive additional education, or make investments. While much of the focus of microfinance has been on microcredit, formal savings services can also have a dramatic impact on the lives of the poor. Savings are important both as insurance in the case of illness or other economic shocks, and as a way to purchase productive assets. Savings can also substitute the need for loans among clients who have enough funds to finance their expenditures themselves. But savings strategies are less tested than credit services, and microfinance institutions struggle to effectively expand their savings services.

Context of the Evaluation:

The semi-urban poor living in Ica and Ayacucho, cities in southern Peru, often earn income through small enterprises and self-employment. In Ica, agriculture represents the most important industry, while Ayacucho is well known for its artisans and handicrafts. Many of the poor in this part of Peru save through informal means. They often keep savings in their own homes, a practice referred to as a colchón banco (mattress-bank), or join Merry-go-Round savings groups called ROSCAs, where members pool their money into a pot, and each week or month a different member takes home the pot.  Due to their informal nature, both of these savings practices can be risky and unreliable.

Details of the Intervention:

Researchers will examine whether an initiative to promote savings can help individuals save more and switch from informal savings to formal sector methods. The study is implemented by the Caja Ica, a bank designed to serve the needs of poor clients with microsavings and microcredit programs, with program support from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and technical assistance from COPEME. The Caja Ica is offering a new commitment savings product called “Ahorro Programmado”. Clients who choose to participate in this service commit to saving an amount of their choosing, amounting to at least 20 soles (US$6.50) per month for 6, 12, 18, or 24 months. As an incentive for meeting their savings commitment, clients receive a preferential interest rate of more than twice what the normal interest rate is for savings accounts.

This research will examine various product designs, beyond the already increased financial incentive, to see which are more effective at encouraging clients to complete their savings commitment. Each of the estimated 5,000 clients expected to enroll in the program will be randomly assigned to receive one or more of the following: (1) reminder letters before the due date of their payment, (2) token gifts upon payment to bring forward the "benefit" of saving, (3) positive or negative incentive messages on each deposit slip, or (4) no services, serving as a comparison. This study will determine the commitment device that most effectively encourages clients to meet their savings goals.

Results and Policy Lessons:

Clients began opening bank accounts in February 2006. The last group to be tracked completed their savings commitments in Oct 2007.  Preliminary results indicate that sign-up gifts, letters, and deposit slips all increased the probability that clients would reach their savings goal by several percentage points.  However, negatively framed messages appear to be more effective than the corresponding positive messages in getting people to save.

 

Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, Jonathan Zinman

Financial Education and Commitment Savings Contracts to Reduce Credit Card Reliance and Mobilize Savings among Low-Income U.S. Households

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of financial education and commitment contracts in promoting higher levels of saving, reduced reliance on credit card debt and healthier financial portfolios among low-income individuals in the United States.  U.S. households in the bottom quartile of wealth spend, on average, more than they earn, and many low-income consumers lack formal savings accounts. Consumers tend to have time-inconsistent preferences for savings and consumption; they tend to be more impatient in the near-term than in the long-term and thus have a propensity to make purchases that are later regretted.  This project will evaluate the impact of commitment devices as a mechanism for mitigating time-inconsistent tendencies in spending, borrowing and saving. 

Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
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