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
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/157809
Acceder
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network_name_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
spelling 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 Técnicas2025-10-22T11:07:27Zoai: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:34982025-10-22 11:07:27.701CONICET 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
reponame_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
collection CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname_str 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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score 12.982451

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