Impact of E-Wallet Usage on Cashless Purchasing Decision: Evidence from Encouragement Design

Last registered on November 19, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of E-Wallet Usage on Cashless Purchasing Decision: Evidence from Encouragement Design
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016471
Initial registration date
July 28, 2025

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 01, 2025, 10:09 AM EDT

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

Last updated
November 19, 2025, 8:40 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Bangladesh
Region
Khulna

Primary Investigator

Name
Md Abdul Bari
Affiliation
Hiroshima University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Yoshida Yuichiro
PI Affiliation
School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University
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PI Name
Ghulam Dastgir Khan
PI Affiliation
Center for Peaceful and Sustainable Futures (CEPEAS), The IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2024-04-16
End date
2025-08-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Welfare
Additional Keywords
E-Wallet; Cashless Purchase; Encouragement; Cashless Food Purchase; Cashless Non-Food Purchase
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Cashless purchase is promoted for convenience, safety, efficiency and transparency. E-Wallet usage is supposed to promote cashless purchase decision. To the best of our knowledge, no study explored the causal impact of E-Wallet usage on cashless purchase decision. To address the self-selection bias, this study applies Randomized Encouragement Design (RED), in which the assistance to install an E-Wallet app acts as an instrumental variable. The assistance to install an E-Wallet app acts as an encouragement to increase usage of App-based mobile banking. The study explores whether usage of E-Wallet app on cashless purchase decision. The study considers Khulna, third biggest city in Bangladesh, as the study area. We focus on four outcomes: online purchase amount last month, online food purchase last month, online non-food purchase last month and online purchase as a per cent of total expenditure. The units of analysis are 202 low to middle income people living in Khulna city. Income based heterogeneity test will be conducted. This study has policy implications to promote E-Wallet app usage to accelerate cashless purchase.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bari, Md Abdul, Ghulam Dastgir Khan and Yoshida Yuichiro . 2025. "Impact of E-Wallet Usage on Cashless Purchasing Decision: Evidence from Encouragement Design." AEA RCT Registry. November 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16471-1.4
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The sample of the study consists of 202 low to middle income individuals from Khulna City in Bangladesh. All the 202 individuals have at least a smartphone. The study will apply convenient sampling. Initially 202 low to middle income individuals were selected based a baseline survey. 101 individuals were assigned randomly to the encouragement group; while 101 individuals were assigned randomly to the non-encouragement group. The encouraged individuals were offered assistance to install e-wallet app. To make the treatment uniform, this study will offer assistance to install B-Kash mobile banking e-wallet app which is the most used mobile banking app in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the non-encouraged individuals were not offered assistance to install any e-wallet app. The assistance to install an e-wallet app should increase usage of e-wallet app. Thus the assistance is considered as an encouragement design in the present study. The baseline survey was conducted in the end of April 2024. The assistance to install a mobile banking app was given in May 2024. The end line survey will be conducted in May 2025, 12 months after the assistance to install the e-wallet app.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-05-01
Intervention End Date
2024-05-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We focus on four outcomes:
1. Log of Online purchase amount (Bangladesh Taka) last month,
2. Log of Online food purchase (Bangladesh Taka) last month
3. Log of Online non-food purchase (Bangladesh Taka) last month
4. Online purchase as a per cent of total expenditure.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We focus on four outcomes:
1. Log of Online purchase amount (Bangladesh Taka) last month,
2. Log of Online food purchase (Bangladesh Taka) last month
3. Log of Online non-food purchase (Bangladesh Taka) last month
4. Online purchase as a per cent of total expenditure.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The sample of the study consists of 202 low income households from Khulna City in Bangladesh. All the 202 households have at least a smartphone. The study applies convenient sampling to select 202 household heads as units of analysis. 202 household heads agreed to participate in the experiment. 100 household heads were assigned randomly to the encouragement group, while 101 household heads were assigned randomly to the non-encouragement group. The encouraged household heads were offered assistance to install E-Wallet apps. To make the treatment uniform, this study offered assistance to install B-Kash E-Wallet app which is the most used mobile banking app in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the non-encouraged household heads were not offered assistance to install any E-Wallet app. The assistance is considered as an encouragement design in the present study. The baseline survey was conducted in April 2024. The assistance to install a mobile banking app was given in May 2024. The end-line survey will be conducted in May 2025, 12 months after the assistance to install the E-Wallet App.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
202 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
202 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
101 individuals
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University Research Ethics Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-15
IRB Approval Number
001645
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials