Impact of FAST and Digitization of Saving Groups on Financial and Digital Inclusion of Participants

Last registered on August 28, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of FAST and Digitization of Saving Groups on Financial and Digital Inclusion of Participants
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014152
Initial registration date
August 21, 2024

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
August 28, 2024, 3:06 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Arianna Zapanta
Affiliation
Innovations for Poverty Action
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Elliott Collins
PI Affiliation
Innovations for Poverty Action
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PI Name
William Blackmon
PI Affiliation
Innovations for Poverty Action
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PI Name
Jessica Goldberg
PI Affiliation
University of Maryland
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PI Name
Alfredo Burlando
PI Affiliation
University of Oregon
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PI Name
Emmanuel Tumusiime
PI Affiliation
World Vision
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-06-03
End date
2026-12-01
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
Poverty, Financial Inclusion
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We investigate the impact of a group loan product and a smartphone application for savings groups members in Malawi and Uganda. Linking savings groups with financial service providers could alleviate financial barriers for many savings groups participants who tend to be relatively poor, rural, and with limited access to capital. Meanwhile, digital ledgers, managed via a smartphone application, could solve many of the operational challenges faced by savings groups in recording transactions in a physical group ledger or individual passbooks, and could help improve the availability of financial information to formal credit providers. The partners, including IPA, are working together to determine if economic and social wellbeing increases as a result of these two interventions.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Blackmon, William et al. 2024. "Impact of FAST and Digitization of Saving Groups on Financial and Digital Inclusion of Participants." AEA RCT Registry. August 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14152-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We plan to test two interventions aimed at savings group participants:
● FAST: FAST is a loan product with financial literacy training that will be offered to participants by VisionFund. The credit/loan component will be offered to savings groups as group-based loans rather than directly to individuals. Groups that take up the loans will have the flexibility to invest the loans in group-based activities (i.e., group-level investment) or can distribute the loan to members of the group for individual-level investment. The group leader would receive the loan via mobile money and has the option to disburse on-lent funds to
individual members via mobile money.
● Digitization of saving groups: WV intends to support Savings Groups in the program to digitize their records (ledgers) to improve operational efficiency, accuracy of records, and to accelerate their potential for enabling financial inclusion. With support from DreamStart
Labs, saving groups will be supported in transitioning their record-keeping from physical passbooks to a digital ledger using a mobile application
Intervention Start Date
2024-10-01
Intervention End Date
2024-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
First, we want to measure the impact of FAST loans on savings group participants’ access to financial services and livelihood outcomes.
This means measuring the impact of FAST loans on improving access to financial services (Availability: respondents reporting could access a loan if wanted; Access/participation: Took a formal loan in the last 12 months; Amount borrowed; Loan and credit sources) and livelihood outcomes (food security index, assets index).

Second, we want to measure the impact of savings group ledger digitization on savings group efficiency, savings behavior, and social cohesion. This means measuring impact of savings group ledger digitization on frequency and length of meetings (number of meetings
per month, average length of meetings), savings behavior (amount and frequency of savings, accuracy of bookkeeping), and social cohesion (rates of departure from group, group member disagreements, and trust in group members).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We are implementing the study as a cluster randomized controlled trial to measure the causal impacts of FAST and Digitization of savings groups, controlling for observable and unobservable differences across groups and individuals.

Treatment assignments will be made at the savings group level, cross-randomized to ensure that half of all surveyed groups receive the FAST intervention and half receive the Digitization intervention and that there is no correlation between the likelihood of assignment between the two interventions. As a result, roughly 25 percent of groups receiving both interventions and 25 percent receiving neither.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Savings group level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Malawi: 144 Savings Groups
Uganda: 168 Savings Groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
Malawi: 1152 Savings Groups Uganda: 1344 Savings Groups
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
● Treatment Arm 0: Control, no exposure to FAST or Digitization (25% of groups)
● Treatment Arm 1: exposure to FAST only (25% of groups)
● Treatment Arm 2: exposure to Digitization only (25% of groups)
● Treatment Arm 3: exposure to FAST and Digitization (25% of groups)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Innovations for Poverty Action
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-17
IRB Approval Number
16954
Analysis Plan