Fostering financial literacy and behavior: Experimental evidence on financial education among small scale retailers in rural Uganda

Last registered on August 16, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Fostering financial literacy and behavior: Experimental evidence on financial education among small scale retailers in rural Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000906
Initial registration date
October 10, 2015

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 10, 2015, 8:20 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
August 16, 2017, 5:30 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Uganda
Region
Rwenzori

Primary Investigator

Name
Tim Kaiser
Affiliation
University of Koblenz-Landau
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lukas Menkhoff
PI Affiliation
DIW Berlin
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2015-10-01
End date
2017-06-30
Keywords
Education, Finance & Microfinance, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Financial behavior, Financial literacy, Financial education, Cluster-RCT
JEL code(s)
D14, I21
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Financial education interventions have become widespread in recent years and seek to strengthen the financial knowledge and behavior of consumers and small-scale entrepreneurs. However, recent systematic reviews of the literature (Fernandes et al. 2014; Miller et al. 2015) question the effectiveness of such programs to target individual financial behavior. Recent experiments go beyond estimations of average treatment effects of a single program, but complement these findings with evidence on orthogonal treatments designed to study the causal mechanism behind these interventions. However, the role of differential pedagogical approaches and design is a surprisingly underresearched issue in the financial education literature. This cluster-randomized field experiment evaluates the comparative effectiveness of two financial literacy trainings offered to small-scale retailers in the Rwenzori-region in western Uganda. The two treatments experimentally vary the use of visuals, narratives and participant involvement. Thus, we are able to study the relative importance of the pedagogical design in financial education interventions and shed light on the causal mechanism underlying the observed behavioral changes expected from these kinds of interventions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kaiser, Tim and Lukas Menkhoff. 2017. "Fostering financial literacy and behavior: Experimental evidence on financial education among small scale retailers in rural Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. August 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.906-5.0
Former Citation
Kaiser, Tim and Lukas Menkhoff. 2017. "Fostering financial literacy and behavior: Experimental evidence on financial education among small scale retailers in rural Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. August 16. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/906/history/20471
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Two different financial education modules (designed by GiZ and the Bank of Uganda) which differ the use of visuals, narratives and participant involvement. Thus, one intervention represents a "standard" approach in the delivery of these - mainly lecture based - trainings while the other intervention introduces pedagogical innovations.
Intervention Start Date
2015-10-02
Intervention End Date
2015-12-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Financial literacy and attittudes, Financial behavior (saving, borrowing, record keeping, insurance, etc.), consumption, take-up of new income-generating activities
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Financial literacy measured through multiple choice test and scores generated using a 2PLM-IRT-Model

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Cluster-RCT at the market-level with up to two follow ups after baseline.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Unconditional randomization of clusters into treatments A and B and control via Stata.
Randomization Unit
Regular and permanent markets (agricultural, clothing etc.) in the Rwenzori region.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
83 markets
Sample size: planned number of observations
around 1300 market vendors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
28 markets
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Cohens` d between 0.15 and 0.25 (financial behavior) (ICC unknown as of today)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 19, 2015, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
February 28, 2017, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
83
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Yes
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1,291
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
28 markets (456 individuals) in control group, 27 markets (414 individuals) in treatment A, 28 markets (421 individuals) in treatment B
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials