Back to History

Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Last Published September 26, 2024 02:40 PM June 02, 2025 11:56 AM
Pi as first author No Yes
Back to top

Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract How can we encourage the adoption of digital financial services? We use an RCT with 115 microfinance groups in Ghana to understand the respective roles of individual incentives to adopt a technology and endorsement of the technology by a peer. We study mobile banking services, a technology which allows deposits and withdrawals between a mobile phone and bank account, dramatically lowering the transaction costs of saving in the bank account. We find that while individual incentives increase adoption of mobile banking services by 60% (6 percentage points) over 6 months, adding endorsement by a peer doubles the impact of the incentives alone. Peer endorsement significantly enhances confidence in dealing with fraud and increases peer support in using mobile banking. Those encouraged to adopt mobile banking by a peer save 30% ($4) more in the linked bank account 6 months later. Our study highlights the power of peers in encouraging technology adoption and facilitating formal financial inclusion.
Paper Citation Riley, E., Shonchoy, A. S., & Osei, R. D. (2025). Incentives and endorsement for technology adoption: Evidence from mobile banking in Ghana. Journal of Development Economics, 176, 103511.
Paper URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103511
Back to top