Savings Account Labeling for Susu Customers in Ghana

Last registered on November 15, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Savings Account Labeling for Susu Customers in Ghana
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006598
Initial registration date
November 02, 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
November 03, 2020, 7:21 AM EST

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

Last updated
November 15, 2020, 6:13 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Ghana
Region
Eastern

Primary Investigator

Name
Dean Karlan
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2009-07-22
End date
2013-09-27
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The study is a two phased project that is testing the impact of account labeling on the savings behavior of rural customers serviced by Susu agents (savings collectors). The original labeled account study, referred to as Phase I, is an RCT comparing treatment customers who were offered a labeled Susu account to control customers who were not offered an account. The follow up study, referred to as Phase II, is an RCT that again provided a labeled Susu account to treatment customers but, this time offered an unlabeled Susu account to control customers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Karlan, Dean. 2020. "Savings Account Labeling for Susu Customers in Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. November 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6598-2.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The study offered labeled accounts to customers serviced by Susu agents (savings collectors) in Mumuadu Rural Bank to test the impact of account labeling on their saving behavior. The original study, phase I compared customers who were offered a labeled account to those who were not offered. The follow up study, referred to as Phase 2, compared customers who were offered a labeled account to those who were offered an additional, unlabeled account.
Intervention Start Date
2009-10-23
Intervention End Date
2013-09-27

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Monthly deposits, withdrawals, and balance of Susu accounts.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
A census survey was administered to customers with active Susu accounts and of those who responded, half of the customers were randomly selected for treatment. Randomization for phase 1 was done for each branch of the bank and was stratified on Susu agent and Savings Balance Strata. Randomization for phase 2 was also done for each branch and stratified on Susu agent and if they had more than 1 Susu account with the bank. The presence of pure control group in phase 1 was replaced with customers who received offers for the additional unlabeled Susu accounts.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2163 in phase 1, 2019 in phase 2
Sample size: planned number of observations
2163 in phase 1, 2019 in phase 2
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1091 in control and 1072 in treatment for phase 1
1009 in control and 1010 in treatment for phase 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Subjects Committee for Innovations for Poverty Action IRB-USA
IRB Approval Date
2014-06-30
IRB Approval Number
08December-001
IRB Name
Yale University Human Subjects Committee
IRB Approval Date
2009-02-17
IRB Approval Number
0902004744
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
September 27, 2013, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
2162 in phase 1 and 1837 in phase 2
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
2162 in phase 1 and 1837 in phase 2
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
1090 in control and 1092 in treatment for phase 1 939 in control and 898 in treatment for phase 2
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials