Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers
- Autores
- Cruces, Guillermo Antonio; Amarante, Verónica; Ramirez, Lucia; Baez, Maria Josefina
- Año de publicación
- 2020
- Idioma
- inglés
- Tipo de recurso
- artículo
- Estado
- versión publicada
- Descripción
- Cash transfer and other social protection programs have greatly expanded in developing countries in the last two decades, but their coverage varies greatly, even among eligible individuals. We studied the low take-up of benefits by means of a field experiment involving 400,000 beneficiaries of Argentina's largest conditional cash-transfer program (with 2.2 million beneficiaries who are the parents of four million children, 40% of the country?s 0-17 year olds). Beneficiaries are assigned a bank account and a debit card. By using their debit card to spend the allowance, rather than withdrawing cash from ATMs, they can receive a rebate of 15% of their expenditures. However, they systematically fail to claim this benefit: only about 25% of beneficiaries receive this transfer. Our experiment provided information about the effectiveness of an information campaign conducted via text messages or through on-screen messages at ATM machines. The campaign increased take-up (i.e., purchases with debit cards and subsequent rebates) significantly but not substantially. The results indicated that the benefit had low salience, that beneficiaries lacked information about the debit-card program, that frictions existed related to financial inclusion and lack of infrastructure, and that limited information and salience were important but second-order factors.
Fil: Cruces, Guillermo Antonio. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina
Fil: Amarante, Verónica. Universidad de la República; Uruguay
Fil: Ramirez, Lucia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina
Fil: Baez, Maria Josefina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina - Materia
-
TAKE-UP OF SOCIAL BENEFITS
FINANCIAL INCLUSION - Nivel de accesibilidad
- acceso abierto
- Condiciones de uso
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
- Repositorio
- Institución
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
- OAI Identificador
- oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/157809
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Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfersCruces, Guillermo AntonioAmarante, VerónicaRamirez, LuciaBaez, Maria JosefinaTAKE-UP OF SOCIAL BENEFITSFINANCIAL INCLUSIONhttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5Cash transfer and other social protection programs have greatly expanded in developing countries in the last two decades, but their coverage varies greatly, even among eligible individuals. We studied the low take-up of benefits by means of a field experiment involving 400,000 beneficiaries of Argentina's largest conditional cash-transfer program (with 2.2 million beneficiaries who are the parents of four million children, 40% of the country?s 0-17 year olds). Beneficiaries are assigned a bank account and a debit card. By using their debit card to spend the allowance, rather than withdrawing cash from ATMs, they can receive a rebate of 15% of their expenditures. However, they systematically fail to claim this benefit: only about 25% of beneficiaries receive this transfer. Our experiment provided information about the effectiveness of an information campaign conducted via text messages or through on-screen messages at ATM machines. The campaign increased take-up (i.e., purchases with debit cards and subsequent rebates) significantly but not substantially. The results indicated that the benefit had low salience, that beneficiaries lacked information about the debit-card program, that frictions existed related to financial inclusion and lack of infrastructure, and that limited information and salience were important but second-order factors.Fil: Cruces, Guillermo Antonio. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Amarante, Verónica. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Ramirez, Lucia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; ArgentinaFil: Baez, Maria Josefina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; ArgentinaPartnership for Economic Policy2020-10info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/157809Cruces, Guillermo Antonio; Amarante, Verónica; Ramirez, Lucia; Baez, Maria Josefina; Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers; Partnership for Economic Policy; Working Papers Serie; 22; 10-2020; 1-272709-7331CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.2139/ssrn.3717959info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3717959info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-29T09:39:07Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/157809instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-29 09:39:07.72CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
title |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
spellingShingle |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers Cruces, Guillermo Antonio TAKE-UP OF SOCIAL BENEFITS FINANCIAL INCLUSION |
title_short |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
title_full |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
title_fullStr |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
title_sort |
Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers |
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Cruces, Guillermo Antonio Amarante, Verónica Ramirez, Lucia Baez, Maria Josefina |
author |
Cruces, Guillermo Antonio |
author_facet |
Cruces, Guillermo Antonio Amarante, Verónica Ramirez, Lucia Baez, Maria Josefina |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Amarante, Verónica Ramirez, Lucia Baez, Maria Josefina |
author2_role |
author author author |
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
TAKE-UP OF SOCIAL BENEFITS FINANCIAL INCLUSION |
topic |
TAKE-UP OF SOCIAL BENEFITS FINANCIAL INCLUSION |
purl_subject.fl_str_mv |
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2 https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5 |
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv |
Cash transfer and other social protection programs have greatly expanded in developing countries in the last two decades, but their coverage varies greatly, even among eligible individuals. We studied the low take-up of benefits by means of a field experiment involving 400,000 beneficiaries of Argentina's largest conditional cash-transfer program (with 2.2 million beneficiaries who are the parents of four million children, 40% of the country?s 0-17 year olds). Beneficiaries are assigned a bank account and a debit card. By using their debit card to spend the allowance, rather than withdrawing cash from ATMs, they can receive a rebate of 15% of their expenditures. However, they systematically fail to claim this benefit: only about 25% of beneficiaries receive this transfer. Our experiment provided information about the effectiveness of an information campaign conducted via text messages or through on-screen messages at ATM machines. The campaign increased take-up (i.e., purchases with debit cards and subsequent rebates) significantly but not substantially. The results indicated that the benefit had low salience, that beneficiaries lacked information about the debit-card program, that frictions existed related to financial inclusion and lack of infrastructure, and that limited information and salience were important but second-order factors. Fil: Cruces, Guillermo Antonio. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina Fil: Amarante, Verónica. Universidad de la República; Uruguay Fil: Ramirez, Lucia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina Fil: Baez, Maria Josefina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina |
description |
Cash transfer and other social protection programs have greatly expanded in developing countries in the last two decades, but their coverage varies greatly, even among eligible individuals. We studied the low take-up of benefits by means of a field experiment involving 400,000 beneficiaries of Argentina's largest conditional cash-transfer program (with 2.2 million beneficiaries who are the parents of four million children, 40% of the country?s 0-17 year olds). Beneficiaries are assigned a bank account and a debit card. By using their debit card to spend the allowance, rather than withdrawing cash from ATMs, they can receive a rebate of 15% of their expenditures. However, they systematically fail to claim this benefit: only about 25% of beneficiaries receive this transfer. Our experiment provided information about the effectiveness of an information campaign conducted via text messages or through on-screen messages at ATM machines. The campaign increased take-up (i.e., purchases with debit cards and subsequent rebates) significantly but not substantially. The results indicated that the benefit had low salience, that beneficiaries lacked information about the debit-card program, that frictions existed related to financial inclusion and lack of infrastructure, and that limited information and salience were important but second-order factors. |
publishDate |
2020 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2020-10 |
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/11336/157809 Cruces, Guillermo Antonio; Amarante, Verónica; Ramirez, Lucia; Baez, Maria Josefina; Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers; Partnership for Economic Policy; Working Papers Serie; 22; 10-2020; 1-27 2709-7331 CONICET Digital CONICET |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11336/157809 |
identifier_str_mv |
Cruces, Guillermo Antonio; Amarante, Verónica; Ramirez, Lucia; Baez, Maria Josefina; Low take-up and financial inclusion: Experimental evidence from Argentina's cash transfers; Partnership for Economic Policy; Working Papers Serie; 22; 10-2020; 1-27 2709-7331 CONICET Digital CONICET |
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.2139/ssrn.3717959 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3717959 |
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/ |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/ |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Partnership for Economic Policy |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Partnership for Economic Policy |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET) instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
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CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
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CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
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Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
dasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.ar |
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1844613236518813696 |
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13.070432 |