Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household.Savings, Microfinance, Female empowerment, Household decision making, Commitment

Household Decision making and Savings Impacts: Further Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Commitment devices for savings could benefit those with self-control as well as familial or spousal control issues. We examine the impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines on household decision making power and savings attitudes. We find evidence to support both types of impacts. The product leads to more decision making power in the household for women, and likewise more purchases of female-oriented durable goods. We also find that the product leads women who appear time inconsistent in a baseline survey to self-report being a disciplined saver in the follow-up survey. For impact on savings balances, we find that the 81% increase in savings after one year did not crowd-out savings held outside of the participating bank, but that the longer-term impact (two-and-a-half years) on bank savings dissipated to only a 33% increase (which is no longer statistically significant). We discuss reasons why the effect dissipated and the implications for designing and implementing sustainable, equilibrium-shifting interventions.savings, microfinance, female empowerment, household decision making, commitment

Deposit Collectors

Informal lending and savings institutions exist around the world, and often include regular door-to-door deposit collection of cash. Some banks have adopted similar services in order to expand access to banking services in areas that lack physical branches. Using a randomized control trial, we investigate determinants of participation in a deposit collection service and evaluate the impact of offering the service for micro-savers of a rural bank in the Philippines. Of 137 individuals offered the service in the treatment group, 38 agreed to sign-up, and 20 regularly used the service. Take-up is predicted by distance to the bank (a measure of transaction costs of depositing without the service) as well as being married (a suggestion that household bargaining issues are important). Those offered the service saved 188 pesos more (which equates to about a 25% increase in savings stock) and were slightly less likely to borrow from the bank.Savings Behavior, Microfinance, Field Experiment, Savings Mobilization, Deposit Collector

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines*

Female “empowerment” has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household.savings, microfinance, female empowerment, household decision making,commitment

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

We designed a commitment savings product for a Philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology. The savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings, and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism. We conducted a baseline survey on 1777 existing or former clients of a bank. One month later, we offered the commitment product to a randomly chosen subset of 710 clients; 202 (28.4 percent) accepted the offer and opened the account. In the baseline survey, we asked hypothetical time discounting questions. Women who exhibited a lower discount rate for future relative to current tradeoffs, and hence potentially have a preference for commitment, were indeed significantly more likely to open the commitment savings account. After twelve months, average savings balances increased by 81 percentage points for those clients assigned to the treatment group relative to those assigned to the control group. We conclude that the savings response represents a lasting change in savings, and not merely a short-term response to a new product.Savings, commitment, hyperbolic preferences, microfinance, development economics, program evaluation, field experiment, self-control

Poverty alleviation through geographic targeting : how much does disaggregation help?

Using recently completed"poverty maps"for Cambodia, Ecuador, and Madagascar, the authors simulate the impact on poverty of transferring an exogenously given budget to geographically defined subgroups of the population according to their relative poverty status. They find large gains from targeting smaller administrative units, such as districts or villages. But these gains are still far from the poverty reduction that would be possible had the planners had access to information on household level income or consumption. The results suggest that a useful way forward might be to combine fine geographic targeting using a poverty map with within-community targeting mechanisms.Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Reduction Strategies,Services&Transfers to Poor,Health Economics&Finance,VN-Acb Mis -- IFC-00535908,Poverty Assessment,Safety Nets and Transfers,Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Female “empowerment ” has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household

Household Decision Marking and Savings Impacts: Further Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Commitment devices for savings could benefit those with self-control as well as familial or spousal control issues. We examine the impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines on household decision making power and savings attitudes. We find evidence to support both types of impacts. The product leads to more decision making power in the household for women, and likewise more purchases of female-oriented durable goods. We also find that the product leads women who appear time inconsistent in a baseline survey to self-report being a disciplined saver in the follow-up survey. For impact on savings balances, we find that the 81 % increase in savings after one year did not crowd-out savings held outside of the participating bank, but that the longer-term impact (two-and-a-half years) on bank savings dissipated to only a 33 % increase (which is no longer statistically significant). We discuss reasons why the effect dissipated and the implications for designing and implementing sustainable, equilibrium-shifting interventions

Deposit Collectors

Informal lending and savings institutions exist around the world, and often include regular door-to-door deposit collection of cash. Some banks have adopted similar services in order to expand access to banking services in areas that lack physical branches. Using a randomized control trial, we investigate determinants of participation in a deposit collection service and evaluate the impact of offering the service for micro-savers of a rural bank in the Philippines. Of 137 individuals offered the service in the treatment group, 38 agreed to sign-up, and 20 regularly used the service. Take-up is predicted by distance to the bank (a measure of transaction costs of depositing without the service) as well as being married (a suggestion that household bargaining issues are important). Those offered the service saved 188 pesos more (which equates to about a 25% increase in savings stock) and were slightly less likely to borrow from the bank