AEA RC T Registr y

The American Economic Association's registry for randomized controlled trials

The three main components of this comprehensive financial inclusion program are:
- Financial literacy training on the benefits of savings and learning how to budget;
- Fee-free bank accounts will be offered to financial literacy training participants at the end of each training session;
- SMS savings reminders will be sent to financial literacy training participants who open a bank account at the end of the training.

2017-09-04

2018-04-15

The main outcomes of interest are as follows:
- increased savings behavior
- more ‘inclusive decision making’ within households
- better financial planning
- improved financial literacy

See the survey instrument attached to this registration. The main outcomes of interest are measured based upon the following questions in the survey instrument:
- increased savings behavior (Questions D1 to D5 and E1 to E4)
- more ‘inclusive decision making’ within households (Questions F1 to F5)
- better financial planning (Questions C1 to C7)
- improved financial literacy (Questions B1 to B3)

The experiment is a randomized control trial, with treatment randomized at the village level (known as ward level in Papua New Guinea).

The impact of the interventions will be evaluated via face-to-face surveys with households, as well as with data from financial institutions.

Not available

The villages were stratified by the 5 sub-districts (known as local level government units in PNG) in the district that the trial is set to take place in. Half the villages in each sub district were randomly selected to receive the treatment. The randomization process occurred in the field through a lottery system. The following video documents the random selection of villages for one of the sub-districts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWJmVkjTjOw&feature=youtu.be

Village level (known as ward level in Papua New Guinea).

Yes

There are 81 clusters in total (41 treatment villages and 40 control villages).

Around 20-25% of households in each of the 81 ‘accessible’ villages will be surveyed. This results in a total sample size of around 3000 households.

The survey will consist of approximately 1500 households in the 41 treatment villages and 1500 households in the control villages.

Statistical power calculations were undertaken to determine the appropriate sample size. The following conservative assumptions were made based upon existing program data, an existing survey and the implementing partner's experience conducting these trainings in other parts of PNG. • Currently around 60% of households have access to a formal financial product • Around 20% of households in a treatment village will attend the financial literacy training • Of the households that attend the training, around half will gain access to a bank account who previously did not have access • Therefore, on average, the estimated effect size is 10 percentage points • An intra-cluster correlation of 0.08 is used Based upon these assumptions, a sample size of around 2800 households in 80 villages (40 treatment and 40 control) would have statistical power of 0.8.