Uptake and usage of Islamic Savings Accounts: Evidence from a randomized control trial

Last registered on April 03, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Uptake and usage of Islamic Savings Accounts: Evidence from a randomized control trial
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005295
Initial registration date
January 28, 2020

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
January 29, 2020, 1:48 PM EST

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

Last updated
April 03, 2024, 8:41 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Pakistan
Region
Asia

Primary Investigator

Name
Robert Lensink
Affiliation
University of Groningen
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Syadah Ahmad
PI Affiliation
University of Groningen
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Annika Mueller
PI Affiliation
University of Groningen
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PI Name
Lisa van Dongen
PI Affiliation
University of Groningen
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2017-09-16
End date
2020-07-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Other, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Islamic banking; Islamic savings; Religious motivation; Account opening; Transaction cost; Assistance in filling forms.
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Recently microfinance institutions (MFI) have started to experiment with financial products other than credit, such as savings products, to make them attractive for majority of the rural households. However, a major obstacle in these efforts is that often the uptake and use of the savings accounts is much lower than expected. Consequently, researchers started to study the causes behind the low uptake and utilization of formal savings instruments, and how the adoption and use of micro-savings accounts can be incentivized. Yet, none of the existing studies focus on Islamic MFIs. As the instruments Islamic MFIs possess to incentivize savings behavior differ from those used by conventional MFI, as Islamic microfinance institutions do not offer interest on savings accounts, it is of great importance to extend the study of questions regarding uptake and usage (as well as the impact) of micro-savings accounts to an Islamic setting. For this purpose, the study aims to examine i) take-up and usage of Islamic savings as well as ii) their impact on welfare and business activities among poor Muslim borrowers. We will further investigate what effect subsidization of motivating potential borrowers with appropriately chosen Islamic texts have/has on the aforementioned outcome variables.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ahmad, Syadah et al. 2024. "Uptake and usage of Islamic Savings Accounts: Evidence from a randomized control trial." AEA RCT Registry. April 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5295-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Participants are offered a mixture of encouragement speech, assistance in filling the application forms, and a subsidy to motivate their take-up and usage of the Islamic savings account.
Intervention Start Date
2017-09-16
Intervention End Date
2017-09-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Take up and usage of Islamic savings account. In the follow up study also impacts of savings accounts (see for variable definitions, the follow-up pre-analysis plan)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Take-up is simply the opening of the the Islamic savings account. However, usage is measured by using total and average number of deposits/withdrawals, and the total and average amount of deposits/withdrawals/savings (in relevant currency). For the amounts, we may take the logarithmic value of 1+amount (in relevant currency) or use the inverse hyperbolic distribution. See also the follow-up pre-analysis plan

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Based on an encouragement design, participants receive (or do not receive) an encouragement talk on savings benefits.
Furthermore, they are either/or not placed in subsidy and assistance provision group. In total we have 8 treatment arms.

Details of the experimental design are provided in pre-analysis plan. We are now conducting a follow up survey, taking into account only 2 treatment arms: details are given in the follow-up pre-analysis plan
Experimental Design Details
Details are provided in pre-analysis plan. We are now conducting a follow up study, details are provided in the follow up pre-analysis plan.
Randomization Method
Randomization is performed on Microsoft excel for some treatments whereas for others a public raffle is done.
Randomization Unit
We have both group and individual level randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
24 branches
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 2,000 participants (in standard study); In follow-up much smaller as we only consider 2 treatment arms (for budgetary reasons)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
12 branches (having 1,094 participants) receive general encouragement speech
12 branches (having 1,126 participants) receive religious motivational speech

For follow up-see pre-analysis plan.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Details are provided in the pre-analysis plan
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee, Faculty of Economics and Business
IRB Approval Date
2017-10-31
IRB Approval Number
2017-10-06 ECFEB
IRB Name
Ethical Clearance, Akhuwat Headquarters
IRB Approval Date
2017-03-27
IRB Approval Number
N/A
IRB Name
Agreement for role of conduct, research protocol and ethical clearance, Product Development & Shariah Compliance Department (PDSC), Meezan Bank
IRB Approval Date
2017-08-21
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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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