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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
This study implements a randomised encouragement design to evaluate the causal impact of bundling health insurance with microfinance loans on the financial outcomes of informal micro- and small-business owners in Edo State, Nigeria. The study is conducted in partnership with a microfinance bank (MFB) operating 24 beats across 4 branches and the Edo State Health Insurance Commission.
The unit of randomisation is the beat-week. The 24 operational beats of the MFB are each assigned to encouragement (treatment) or no-encouragement (control) conditions on a week-by-week basis across 16 weeks of recruitment, yielding approximately 384 beat-week clusters. During encouragement weeks, all eligible clients visiting a beat are offered a bundled product comprising a microfinance loan and voluntary health insurance coverage. During control weeks, clients receive the microfinance loan only. Randomisation is stratified by branch. Clients are never compelled to enrol; take-up is entirely voluntary.
Eligible participants are active loan clients and clients presenting for loan renewal who operate informal micro or small businesses. Two rounds of data collection – baseline and endline – will be conducted via structured surveys. The study will estimate the Intent-to-Treat (ITT) effect of the offer and the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) among compliers using Two-Stage Least Squares with the randomised offer as an instrumental variable for actual enrolment.
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After
This study implements a randomised encouragement design to evaluate the causal impact of bundling health insurance with microfinance loans on the financial outcomes of informal micro- and small-business owners in Edo State, Nigeria. The study is conducted in partnership with a microfinance bank (MFB) operating 24 beats across 4 branches and the Edo State Health Insurance Commission.
The unit of randomisation is the beat-week. The 24 operational beats of the MFB are each assigned to encouragement (treatment) or no-encouragement (control) conditions on a week-by-week basis across 16 weeks of recruitment, yielding approximately 384 beat-week clusters. During encouragement weeks, all eligible clients visiting a beat are offered a bundled product comprising a microfinance loan and voluntary health insurance coverage (Bronze plan, ₦18,000 annual premium). During control weeks, clients receive the microfinance loan only. Randomisation is stratified by branch. Clients are never compelled to enrol; take-up is entirely voluntary.
Eligible participants are active loan clients and clients presenting for loan renewal who operate informal micro or small businesses. Two rounds of data collection – baseline and endline – will be conducted via structured surveys. The study will estimate the Intent-to-Treat (ITT) effect of the offer and the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) among compliers using Two-Stage Least Squares with the randomised offer as an instrumental variable for actual enrolment.
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
Intervention
This study employs a randomised encouragement design in which randomisation applies to the offer of the bundled product rather than to actual enrolment. The unit of randomisation is the beat-week – the 24 operational units of the MFB (each assigned to a dedicated credit and recovery officer) crossed with the 16 weeks of the recruitment period, yielding approximately 384 beat-week clusters. For each beat, weeks during the recruitment period will be randomly assigned to either encouragement (treatment) or no-encouragement (control) conditions. During encouragement weeks, all eligible clients visiting the branch will be offered the bundled product with full product information. During control weeks, no offer will be made, and clients receive the status quo product only. Clients remain free to enrol or not; only those visiting during randomly assigned encouragement weeks can access the bundled product. Randomisation will be stratified by branches of the MFB (4 branches) to ensure balance across study arms.
Treatment arms:
Encouragement arm: Eligible clients are offered a bundled product comprising a microfinance loan and voluntary health insurance coverage.
Control arm: Eligible clients receive the microfinance loan only, under the status quo. No health insurance offer is made.
Eligibility: Eligible participants are active loan clients of the MFB and clients requesting loan renewal during the recruitment period who operate informal micro or small businesses in Edo State, Nigeria.
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After
Intervention
This study employs a randomised encouragement design in which randomisation applies to the offer of the bundled product rather than to actual enrolment. The unit of randomisation is the beat-week – the 24 operational units of the MFB (each assigned to a dedicated credit and recovery officer) crossed with the 16 weeks of the recruitment period, yielding approximately 384 beat-week clusters. For each beat, weeks during the recruitment period will be randomly assigned to either encouragement (treatment) or no-encouragement (control) conditions. During encouragement weeks, all eligible clients visiting the branch will be offered the bundled product with full product information. During control weeks, no offer will be made, and clients receive the status quo product only. Clients remain free to enrol or not; only those visiting during randomly assigned encouragement weeks can access the bundled product. Randomisation will be stratified by branches of the MFB (4 branches) to ensure balance across study arms.
Treatment arms:
Encouragement arm: Eligible clients are offered a bundled product comprising a microfinance loan and voluntary health insurance coverage. The insurance offer is restricted to the Bronze plan (₦18,000 annual premium), selected on the basis of the pre-study needs assessment, which found that 54% of MFB clients expressed willingness to pay at this tier - the lowest of the three available premium levels.
Control arm: Eligible clients receive the microfinance loan only, under the status quo. No health insurance offer is made.
Eligibility: Eligible participants are active loan clients of the MFB and clients requesting loan renewal during the recruitment period who operate informal micro or small businesses in Edo State, Nigeria.
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