Starting a Lifetime of Savings (SaLSa) - Uganda

Last registered on January 08, 2014
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Starting a Lifetime of Savings (SaLSa) - Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000080
First published
January 08, 2014, 1:44 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Uganda
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Dean Karlan
Affiliation
Northwestern University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jonathan Zinman
PI Affiliation
Dartmouth College
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Julian Jamison
PI Affiliation
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2010-05-01
End date
2014-01-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
Financial education, savings
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The Church of Uganda maintains a large network of youth fellowship groups, based out of village churches around the country. These groups were targeted for variations of a financial education and group savings account intervention because they offer a high level of trust among members, as well as a high degree of consistency across the different groups, relative to other youth group structures in Uganda. Each group has an average of 25 members with a well-balanced mix of genders and occupations.

The evaluation examines two interventions: a financial education curriculum (a knowledge-based intervention) and a specially-designed youth group savings account (an access-based intervention). The curriculum was developed in partnership with Straight Talk Foundation – a highly successful Ugandan organization specializing in communication to youth – based on the Your Future, Your Money curriculum from the Global Financial Education Program and materials from Binti Pamoja, an organization that promotes the rights of teenage girls.

The ten-session, fifteen-hour curriculum focused primarily on teaching concepts and skills for improving savings behavior, ranging from role-playing the differences between saving and borrowing to achieve a goal, to how to keep a budget, to strategies for successfully discussing sensitive topics around money.

The group savings account was designed without fees and with simple account-opening procedures to minimize the barriers that were found in focus group discussions to most discourage young Ugandans from opening accounts.

Two hundred forty church groups, representative of all of Uganda’s regions, were selected based on their level of activity and access to district capitals. The sample population was randomly assigned into four groups, including one group which received neither intervention and served as the comparison group.
External Link(s)
Innovations for Poverty Action Project Summary

Registration Citation

Citation
Jamison, Julian, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman. 2014. "Starting a Lifetime of Savings (SaLSa) - Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. January 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.80-1.0
Former Citation
Jamison, Julian, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman. 2014. "Starting a Lifetime of Savings (SaLSa) - Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. January 08. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/80/history/844
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This evaluation examines two interventions: a financial education curriculum (a knowledge-based intervention) and a specially-designed youth group savings account (an access-based intervention). The curriculum was developed in partnership with Straight Talk Foundation – a highly successful Ugandan organization specializing in communication to youth – based on the Your Future, Your Moneycurriculum from the Global Financial Education Program and materials from Binti Pamoja, an organization that promotes the rights of teenage girls.

The ten-session, fifteen-hour curriculum focused primarily on teaching concepts and skills for improving savings behavior, ranging from role-playing the differences between saving and borrowing to achieve a goal, to how to keep a budget, to strategies for successfully discussing sensitive topics around money.

The group savings account was designed without fees and with simple account-opening procedures to minimize the barriers that were found in focus group discussions to most discourage young Ugandans from opening accounts.
Intervention Start Date
2010-07-01
Intervention End Date
2011-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Decision-making inputs, financial assets and liabilities, income and work, expenditures
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Decision-making inputs: financial knowledge, financial awareness, numeracy, financial literacy, financial planning, preferences, expectations, discount rates, self-control, shock perception, trust, altruism.
Financial assets and liabilities: any savings, savings locations, savings amounts, deposits, withdrawals, savings goals, non-financial assets, borrowing.
Income and work: earned income, income from occupation types, quantity of work effort, occupational choice.
Expenditures: recent expenditures, 6-month look-backs on expenditures.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Two hundred forty church groups, representative of all of Uganda’s regions, were selected based on their level of activity and access to district capitals. The sample population was randomly assigned into four groups: one offered only the group savings account, one offered only the financial education, one offered both, and one offered neither, serving as a control group.

In total 120 groups were offered the financial education program by FINCA-hired and IPA-managed financial educators and 120 groups were offered the group savings account.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Church of Uganda Youth Group
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
240 Church of Uganda Youth Groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,810 youth
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
60 clubs financial education only, 60 clubs account only, 60 clubs financial education and account, 60 clubs control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Innovations for Poverty Action
IRB Approval Date
2010-06-02
IRB Approval Number
113.10February-006
IRB Name
Yale University Human Subjects Committee
IRB Approval Date
2010-03-11
IRB Approval Number
1002006384
IRB Name
Uganda National Council for Science and Technology
IRB Approval Date
2010-01-12
IRB Approval Number
SS2302
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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