Levy Graduate Programs, Levy Economics Institute, Economics Program, and Economics and Finance Program Present
Financial Education and Savings Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in India.
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Financial literacy programs are popular, despite limited evidence that they lead to significant changes in savings behavior. We provide an experimental test of the impact of financial literacy training on clients of a branchless banking program in India that offers low income households doorstep access to banking. We find that the intervention increased total savings in the treatment group increased by 49% within a period of one year. The increase in savings is due in part to decreases in expenditures on temptation goods. These results suggest that financial education interventions can be successful in changing savings outcomes, though we are only able to speculate why the program worked in this context.
Dr. Santadarshan Sadhu is a Research Scientist in NORC at the University of Chicago. He is a development economist specializing in impact evaluation of various developmental interventions and has a significant experience in assessing the impact of financial inclusion and financial literacy training. During the past 7 years, Dr. Sadhu has undertaken several research projects on financial inclusion and served as the Principal Investigator in three randomized impact evaluations of financial literacy training in India. Findings from Dr. Sadhu's research on financial literacy indicate that financial literacy training can significantly increase savings of clients who have access to doorstep banking. His present research focuses on assessing the impact of agri-value chain interventions on smallholder farmers and designing innovative and cost-effective models of delivering financial literacy training to low income and hard to reach populations.
For more information, call 845-758-4392, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Hegeman 102
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