Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya / Pascaline Dupas, Jonathan Robinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dupas, Pascaline.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Robinson, Jonathan.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14693.

NBER working paper series no. w14693

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2009.

Summary:

Does limited access to formal savings services impede business growth in poor countries? To shed light on this question, we randomized access to non-interest-bearing bank accounts among two types of self-employed individuals in rural Kenya: market vendors (who are mostly women) and men working as bicycle-taxi drivers. Despite large withdrawal fees, a substantial share of market women used the accounts, were able to save more, and increased their productive investment and private expenditures. We see no impact for bicycle-taxi drivers. These results imply significant barriers to savings and investment for market women in our study context. Further work is needed to understand what those barriers are, and to test whether the results generalize to other types of businesses or individuals.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2009.