IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/apandp/v110y2020p599-604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cashing In (and Out): Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Mobile Money in Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Shilpa Aggarwal
  • Valentina Brailovskaya
  • Jonathan Robinson

Abstract

We present results from a randomized control trial on access to mobile money with 480 entrepreneurs in Malawi. Treated individuals received account opening assistance and basic training on mobile money and were encouraged to save. Withdrawal fees were waived. Seventy-three percent of treatment respondents made at least 1 deposit, and 53 percent made at least 5. Treatment respondents reallocated labor from business to agriculture, and we find some evidence for an increase in expenditures. Evidence suggests that treatment effects were driven in large part by respondents using the accounts for savings.

Suggested Citation

  • Shilpa Aggarwal & Valentina Brailovskaya & Jonathan Robinson, 2020. "Cashing In (and Out): Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Mobile Money in Malawi," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 599-604, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:110:y:2020:p:599-604
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20201087
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E122481V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20201087.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20201087.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pandp.20201087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Parlasca, Martin & Johnen, Constantin & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "Use of Mobile Financial Services Among Farmers in Africa: Insights from Kenya," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315863, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Ablam Estel Apeti, 2022. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," Post-Print hal-03819779, HAL.
    3. Ablam Estel Apeti & Jean-Louis Combes & Eyah Denise Edoh, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in developing countries: can mobile money play a role?," Working Papers hal-04081304, HAL.
    4. Zelu, Barbara Ama & Iranzo, Susana & Perez-Laborda, Alejandro, 2024. "Financial inclusion and women economic empowerment in Ghana," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2018. "Is mobile money changing rural Africa? Evidence from a field experiment," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp1805, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    6. Apeti, Ablam Estel, 2023. "Household welfare in the digital age: Assessing the effect of mobile money on household consumption volatility in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    8. Bob Foster & Sukono & Muhamad Deni Johansyah, 2021. "Analysis of the Effect of Financial Literacy, Practicality, and Consumer Lifestyle on the Use of Chip-Based Electronic Money Using SEM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Trinh Quang Long & Peter J. Morgan & Naoyuki Yoshino, 2023. "Financial literacy, behavioral traits, and ePayment adoption and usage in Japan," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, December.
    10. Grzybowski, Lukasz & Lindlacher, Valentin & Mothobi, Onkokame, 2023. "Mobile money and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Shilpa Aggarwal & Valentina Brailovskaya & Jonathan Robinson, 2023. "Saving for Multiple Financial Needs: Evidence from Lockboxes and Mobile Money in Malawi," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 833-851, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:110:y:2020:p:599-604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.