IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/eeaeje/343259.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Household Saving Behavior in Rural Ethiopia: Challenges and Policy Options

Author

Listed:
  • Elias, Hailu
  • Beshir, Mohammed
  • Mehare, Abule

Abstract

Despite remarkable progress in increasing domestic saving over the last two decades, it has been unable to keep pace with investment rates. Hence, it is crucial to identify and implement feasible policies to mobilize more domestic savings to reduce the financial gap. To this end, dependable empirical evidence is imperative. This study aims to identify the major drivers of saving in general, and in-cash and in-kind savings in particular among rural households. We rely on both primary (panel data sets, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions) and secondary (data collected from Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and the National Bank of Ethiopia) sources. Descriptive and econometric approaches were employed to analyze the data and answer the research questions posed. The results show that about 75% and 77% of surveyed households saved in formal or informal financial institutions in 2014 and 2022, respectively. Nominal savings per household have increased in the past decade, but most of the improvement has come from in-kind savings which are destined for informal mechanisms. As a result, the main source of finance for rural households, MFIs, faced difficulty meeting the loan demands with their own savings. The rise in inflation, especially in recent years, forced households to reduce cash savings and hold assets. Our econometric analysis shows that ensuring access to formal financial services, financial knowledge, and building trust in formal financial institutions (FFIs) and their services significantly increases cash saving. Therefore, improving access to FFIs and diversifying financial products will improve the rate of savings and therefore, the rate of investment in Ethiopia. The results also show that building trust in the services and products of formal financial institutions (FFIs) can help bring in-kind savings and informal cash savings to formal cash deposits in financial institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Elias, Hailu & Beshir, Mohammed & Mehare, Abule, 2022. "Household Saving Behavior in Rural Ethiopia: Challenges and Policy Options," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 31(02), October.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:eeaeje:343259
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.343259
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/343259/files/Household%20Saving%20Behavior%20in.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.343259?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashraf, Nava & Karlan, Dean & Yin, Wesley, 2010. "Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-344, March.
    2. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    3. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    4. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    5. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora, 2012. "Financial inclusion in Africa : an overview," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6088, The World Bank.
    6. K. Spio & J.A. Groenewald, 1996. "Rural Household Savings and the Life Cycle Hypothesis: The Case of South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 64(4), pages 217-223, December.
    7. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    8. Fentahun Addis & Belainew Belete & Melaku Bogale, 2019. "Rural Farm Household Saving Habit in Ethiopia: Evidence from South West Amhara Growth Corridor," Academic Journal of Economic Studies, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 5(3), pages 112-119, September.
    9. Eric Asare & Eduardo Segarra & Nakakeeto Gertrude & Fafanyo Asiseh, 2018. "Explaining the Saving Behavior of Households¡¯ in Ethiopia, Africa," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 5(2), pages 143-151, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohd Abass Bhat & Geleta Demera Gomero & Shagufta Tariq Khan, 2024. "Antecedents of Savings Behaviour Among Rural Households: A Holistic Approach," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 56-71, January.
    2. Ma, Yechi & Ding, Yibing & Bu, Ziwen & Li, Suyang, 2024. "Political freedom and financial inclusion: Unraveling social trust and political rent-seeking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 46-65.
    3. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 111, pages 84-96.
    4. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    5. Vincent Somville & Lore Vandewalle, 2018. "Saving by Default: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 39-66, July.
    6. Steinert, Janina Isabel & Vasumati Satish, Rucha & Stips, Felix & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2022. "Commitment or concealment? Impacts and use of a portable saving device: Evidence from a field experiment in urban India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 367-398.
    7. Cozarenco, Anastasia & Hudon, Marek & Szafarz, Ariane, 2016. "What type of microfinance institutions supply savings products?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 57-59.
    8. Flory, Jeffrey A., 2018. "Formal finance and informal safety nets of the poor: Evidence from a savings field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 517-533.
    9. Kazushi Takahashi & Yukichi Mano & Keijiro Otsuka, 2018. "Spillovers as a Driver to Reduce Ex-post Inequality Generated by Randomized Experiments: Evidence from an Agricultural Training Intervention," Working Papers 174, JICA Research Institute.
    10. Carlos Chiapa & Silvia Prina, 2017. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Financial Access: Increasing the Bang for Each Transferred Buck?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(1), pages 23-38, January.
    11. Spantig, Lisa, 2021. "Cash in hand and savings decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1206-1220.
    12. Jann Goedecke & Isabelle Guérin & Bert D'Espallier & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2018. "Why do financial inclusion policies fail in mobilizing savings from the poor? Lessons from rural south India," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 201-219, March.
    13. John, Leslie K. & Blunden, Hayley & Milkman, Katherine L. & Foschini, Luca & Tuckfield, Bradford, 2022. "The limits of inconspicuous incentives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    14. Bruno, Olivier & Khachatryan, Knar, 2020. "Compulsory versus voluntary savings as an incentive mechanism in microfinance programs," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    15. Shivangi Bhatia & Seema Singh, 2019. "Empowering Women Through Financial Inclusion: A Study of Urban Slum," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 44(4), pages 182-197, December.
    16. Serge Ky & Clovis Rugemintwari & Alain Sauviat, 2018. "Does Mobile Money Affect Saving Behaviour? Evidence from a Developing Country," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(3), pages 285-320.
    17. Ahmad, Syedah & Lensink, Robert & Mueller, Annika, 2023. "Uptake, use, and impact of Islamic savings: Evidence from a field experiment in Pakistan1," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    18. Marianne Daher & Antonia Rosati & Andrea Jaramillo, 2022. "Saving as a Path for Female Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Rural Peru," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 22(1), pages 32-55, January.
    19. Marcela Ibanez & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2023. "Income Risk, Precautionary Saving, and Loss Aversion – An Empirical Test," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2023_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    20. Daisy Johana Pacheco & Ana María Yaruro, 2018. "Factors Affecting Ownership of Financial Products in Colombia," Investigación Conjunta-Joint Research, in: María José Roa García & Diana Mejía (ed.), Financial Decisions of Households and Financial Inclusion: Evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 157-192, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos, CEMLA.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural Finance;

    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:ags:eeaeje:343259. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa2ea.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.