Do Financial Education Interventions for Women from Poor Households Impact Their Financial Behaviors? Experimental Evidence from India. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bhutoria, Aditi; Vignoles, Anna
• Is Part Of: Journal of research on educational effectiveness. Volume 11:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 409
• Page End: 432
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: financial education -- rules of thumb -- savings -- randomized controlled trial -- India; Education -- Research -- Periodicals; Education -- Evaluation -- Periodicals; Education -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 371.422
• DOI: 10.1080/19345747.2018.1465317
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1934-5747

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Policymakers have invested significant resources in financial education to improve financial literacy of the poor, reduce bad financial decision-making, and increase take-up of financial services and products. Yet, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions, especially in developing countries. This paper provides evidence from a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) where a relatively light financial education program (one day of training) was offered to a large sample of women ( n = 1, 281) from poor households in informal community settings. The educational intervention was a significant departure from the more costly traditional classroom-style adult education interventions. It was based on simple "rules of thumb" and used a goal-oriented and action-focused approach, targeted at changing behaviors. We find evidence of modest, positive treatment effects for some outcomes including an increase in personal savings, achieved at a relatively low cost of training per participant.