TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dupas, Pascaline
AU  - Karlan, Dean
AU  - Robinson, Jonathan
AU  - Ubfal, Diego
TI  - Banking the Unbanked? Evidence From Three Countries
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 22463
PY  - 2016
Y2  - July 2016
DO  - 10.3386/w22463
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22463
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22463.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Pascaline Dupas
Department of Economics
Stanford University
579 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6072
E-Mail: pdupas@stanford.edu

Dean Karlan
Kellogg Global Hub
Northwestern University
2211 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847/491-8706
E-Mail: dean.karlan@gmail.com

Jonathan Robinson
Department of Economics
University of California, Santa Cruz
457 Engineering 2
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tel: 831/459-5618
Fax: 831/459-5077
E-Mail: jmrtwo@ucsc.edu

Diego Ubfal
Bocconi University
E-Mail: diego.ubfal@unibocconi.it
AB  - We experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17 percent, 10 percent, and 3 percent of treatment individuals made five or more deposits, respectively. Average monthly deposits for them were at the 79th, 91st, and 96th percentiles of baseline savings. Survey data show no clearly discernible intention–to–treat effects on savings or any downstream outcomes. This suggests that policies merely focused on expanding access to basic accounts are unlikely to improve welfare noticeably since impacts, even if present, are likely small and diverse.
ER  -